Ehud, Stigma, and the Management of Spoiled Identity
A Sociological Retelling of Judges 3: 12–30
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21785245 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David J Chalcraft (Liverpool John Moores University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2021-03-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Postscripts The Journal of Sacred Texts Cultural Histories and Contemporary Contexts (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1743-887X • E-ISSN: 1743-8888 |
| Publisher | Equinox Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1558/post.17563 |
| OpenAlex | W3133562446 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
The story of Ehud, and his assassination of the Moabite King Eglon (Judges 3: 12–30), continues to entertain readers and hearers alike. The story also perplexes, largely on moral grounds. This paper utilises the sociology of Erving Goffman and insights from disability studies to re-tell the story of Ehud as someone who is doubly stigmatised. That is, Ehud not only carriers the stigma of left-handedness but is also disabled; moreover, the Moabite King is also disabled/immobile because of his obesity. I take the biblical text as conveying that Ehud is left-handed by necessity given the impairment in his right hand/arm. Adopting a social model of disability, I apply Goffman’s account of the management of spoiled identity developed in his book Stigma (1963) to explore how the narrative depicts various dimensions of social stigma and Ehud’s moral career as he attempts to manage his spoiled identity and the degrees of societal acceptance and rejection he experiences in different contexts. The key arguments of Goffman are summarised before I apply central concepts from Goffman to the biblical story. Concepts include “moral career,” the distinction between social, personal and ego (self-) identity, and the key distinction between a person with a stigma being discredited (because the impairment is obvious and seen by all), on the one hand, or bearing a stigma that is discreditable (that is, it would discredit them if found out), on the other
Aesthetics · Art · Literature · Narrative · Psychoanalysis · Social group · Social identity theory · Sociology · Disability Rights and Representation · Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
The art of Biblical narrative
Honour, family and patronage
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
The Disability Studies Reader
The Wretched of the Earth
Mosaic Disability and Identity in Exodus 4
Queers in the Line of Fire
Being disabled
Much ado about Goffman
Asylums
Relations in Public
Deviance, Charisma, and Rule-Defined Behavior
The Functions of Deviance in Groups
| Highly cited | No |
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