Woman Zion Out Of Hand

A New Materialist Investigation of Zion's Movement

By: Cindy Dawson

Write A Review

Hardcover | 18 November 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover
264 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.9

Hardcover

$280.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $70.19 with

Ships in 5 to 10 business days

In this groundbreaking work, Cindy Dawson maps and investigates Woman Zion through texts and time as a premiere example of a body''s agency. The personification of the city of Jerusalem in biblical and Early Jewish texts, Woman Zion appears in 30 texts over 800 years, during which time her body undergoes remarkable change. Dawson begins in the preexilic years of Isaiah, Micah, Hosea, and Jeremiah, descends with Woman Zion to her exilic nadir in Ezekiel and Lamentations, then watches her remarkable rise in Isaiah and the texts of Early Judaism, including 1 Baruch, 4 Ezra, Galatians, and Revelation. Building upon the insight of New Materialism, this study defines agency as the ability to intra-act, to act upon and be acted upon by the world around it. Agency is not limited by something (i.e., "intention" or "will") that someone (i.e., a human) possesses but simply by some ability to enact change, an ability possessed by humans and nonhumans alike. Woman Zion is therefore more than a way for authors to think, more than a mere tool by which those authors assert their agenda and their agency -- her body is in fact an art object, and at that, one with agency. This agency is ontological and furthermore demonstrable, evident in how her body gets out of hand, outlasts her creators, and does things they would never intend her to do. This study therefore provides a new way to track a tradition, without succumbing to the limitations of form criticism and, by definition, its tie to forms that face eventual extinction. Here, Cindy Dawson reformulates a long-time interest of biblical studies, to show how Woman Zion''s body becomes the new form.

Industry Reviews

"As the title of her book suggests, Dawson applies a New Materialist approach to Hebrew Bible and early Jewish texts that feature a female body representing Jerusalem/Zion. ... It is not only a refreshingly different approach to biblical texts but also a strikingly honest one..." -- Rosanne Liebermann, The Bible & Critical Theory

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.