The realities people live by: A critical reflection on the value of Wolfgang Iser’s concept of repertoire for reading the story of Susanna in the Septuagint

Abstract

The article investigates the value of Wolfgang Iser’s concept of repertoire for reading the apocryphal story of Susanna. The viewpoint is that fictional literature such as the Susanna narrative and reality are not opposites of each other, but that fictional texts tell us something about reality. The investigation will also include Peter L. Berger’s theory on how religion contributes to construct social reality. The study will show that religious texts construct the reality(ies) in which people interact and try to make sense of everyday existence. Two stories contemporary to the writer of the article are employed to show that in a certain sense male perceptions about women have not changed much over two millennia. The critical engagement with the narrative will also ask how Susanna’s story can be interpreted in a responsible and ethical way that is conducive for the constructive development and transformation of individuals and communities.

Unique development of narratological approaches to the apocryphal or deuterocanonical books of the Septuagint with special emphasis on the North-West University scholarship

“…He began his fellowship by researching the possibilities of cognitive linguistics as theory and method, which turned out to present interesting avenues of interpretation of apocryphal literature. Nolte brought different theories and methods into play in his investigations of the LXX texts, which led to several published articles (Nolte & Jordaan 2009, 2013. These publications reveal an interest in different vantage points from which texts can be read, namely 2016a, 2016b, 2016c, 2020, 2021).…”