Abstract
The dissertation argues that the disablement and “repair” of Job’s body in T. Job mark the transformations of his masculine identity over the course of the narrative. In the chapters leading up to his ordeal, Job represents the preeminent male figure in ancient society—an able-bodied king who realizes his masculinity through his mastery over the social world. With the onset of his ordeal, Job’s authority quickly evaporates, as Satan destroys the system of brokerage through which Job once demonstrated his public dominance. Satan finally assails Job with a debilitating plague, signaling Job’s loss of control over his own physical body; the final demise of his former masculine identity is complete. But the writer does not leave Job emasculated in a paralyzed and diseased body. Rather, Job turns inward to realize his masculinity by enduring the pains of his body through the practice of self-control. So valuable is his new masculine identity, that Job, in ironic fashion, not only resists the efforts of his able-bodied antagonists (i.e. Satan and the four kings) to take control of his docile body, but ultimately shames them in turn. With Job’s physical restoration at the narrative’s denouement, however, the narrative most clearly promotes its conception of what authentic masculinity entails. While Job can claim to his children that he is a man of endurance (1:3), his restoration both as a benefactor and an able-bodied man indicates that the hegemonic masculine ideal has not been entirely replaced. Rather, this final portrait of Job promotes a hybrid form of masculinity which necessitates mastery over both his soul and others. In so doing, T. Job reinforces to its readership that full-functionality really is a defining feature of authentic masculinity.
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