Met with Rathey today to clarify some of our concerns about research method and how we should form a "thesis". His response was that this is a historical study with nothing to prove. So the goal is to research the topic thoroughly, present that information (not randomly but concisely) along with some of our own conclusions.
Some guiding questions:
What are we looking at? the story of John the Baptist and Salome
Why are Strauss and Wilde interested in this topic?
How does 20th c thinking affect the story?
How does this art affect the presentation of biblical subjects in the 20th c?
He also mentioned Adella Collins as biblical scholar source.
Great that you talked to Rathey!
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I am not very good at strictly historical studies, but this does simplify our project a great deal. The more abstract topic woven into the historical one (as I see it) is representation. Biblical portrayals to a certain extent reflect the cultural milieu out of which they are born.
So a couple of ancillary questions to the second question are, why do they portray JB and Salome the way they do? And how do their portrayals depart from the tradition?
This seems to be a radical reframing of the project, as I had conceived it, thus far. And maybe it isn't. What is your take on this?