Text-based potentials of identification in the psalms of the Hebrew Bible

The immediacy of the psalms of the Hebrew Bible is a phenomenon frequently mentioned during all periods of scientific psalm research but has never been operationalised with adequate methods nor analysed systematically. This desideratum in current psalm research and the fact that the psalms have kept touching people throughout the centuries, thus bridging more than 2000 years of time as well as space and different cultures, marks the starting point for the research project. Immediacy is based on the fact that readers can identify with the situations, experiences, emotions, characters and movements expressed in the texts. Therefore, the project aims to find answers to the following research questions: Which aspects of identification can be found in the psalms of the Hebrew Bible and how do they function? The identification-process is a complex reading-phenomenon depending on three factors: (1) reader, (2) context and (3) text. For the analysis of text-based potentials of identification an innovative methodological approach is developed within the framework of the aesthetics of reception, based on a definition of the term identification. In literary studies identification with narrative texts means the adoption of a textual constructed focus concerning both the concrete space as well as time. So while the readers identify with this special focus, they become part of the narrated fictional world. This definition of identification is part of the narrative aesthetic illusion- phenomenon which refers to the fact that one does not just watch the world narrated in a text from a distance, but has the impression of being present in this possible world and of experiencing it in a way similar to experiencing ones own life. Six general principles of illusion-making in literary fiction within the framework of narrative aesthetic illusion have already been established. To analyse text-based identification-potentials, these principles will be methodically operationalised in terms of adequate questions, combined with methods already established within the exegesis and then aligned with the psalms. Before that, reasons are given to apply the principles of narrative aesthetic illusion developed within the framework of narrative texts to lyrics such as the psalms. After a well-grounded selection of the psalms using the formal criterion of the dominant narrating voice and after the text-analysis, theological as well as interdisciplinary benefits can be expected: an innovative procedure of adopting narrative methods for the interpretation of lyric texts in order to enrich the analysis of poetry; an extended understanding of metaphors in biblical scriptures because of their identification-potentials; a broader knowledge concerning emotions in biblical texts, as identification has very much to do with emotions evoked by the text and expressed in the text, and finally a broader theological understanding of the psalms and a deeper understanding of their immediacy.

How is it possible that readers plunge into literary texts and experience them at first hand?Based upon this question, the research project explored the characteristics of the psalms. The immediacy of the psalms of the Hebrew Bible is a phenomenon frequently mentioned during all periods of scientific psalm research but has never been operationalised with adequate methods nor analysed systematically. This desideratum in current psalm research and the fact that the psalms have kept touching people throughout the centuries, thus bridging more than 2000 years of time as well as space and different cultures, marked the starting point for the research project.Immediacy is based on the fact that readers can identify with the situations, experiences, emotions, characters and movements expressed in the texts. Therefore, the project aimed to find answers to the following research questions: Which aspects of identification can be found in the psalms of the Hebrew Bible and how do they function? So the aim of this project was it to analyse strategies of the texts, which enable readers to identify with the situations, characters, experiences, thoughts and emotions described in the psalms. For the analysis of text-based potentials of identification an innovative methodological approach has been developed, based on a definition of the term identification. In literary studies identification with narrative texts means the active adoption of certain perspectives constructed in the text. This perspective-taking will be the more successful (1) the more specific and more interesting the text-world is presented, (2) the better you can follow the text emotionally and (3) the better you can follow the dynamics of the text. So the text analysis was carried out along the three analytical categories (1) content or text-world, (2) emotions, which means emotions in the text and emotions triggered by the text and (3) dynamics of the text.After a well-grounded selection of the psalms using the formal criterion of the dominant perspective narrated in the text and after the text-analysis, the project was able to show theological as well as interdisciplinary benefits: an innovative procedure of adopting narrative methods for the interpretation of lyric texts in order to enrich the analysis of poetry; an extended understanding of verbal images in general and metaphors in particular because of their wide identification-potentials; a new contribution to the emotion-analysis in biblical texts through the study of explicit and implicit emotions, and finally a broader theological understanding of the psalms and a deeper understanding of their immediacy for modern readers.