Wrestling with God: The Narrative of Genesis 32 in "A Little East of Jordan", "Carrion Comfort" and "The Prodigal"

Abstract

This article will seek to explore the elusive narrative of Genesis 32, the scene of Jacob wrestling with God, within the context of its appearance in popular literature throughout the late 19th to mid 20th centuries, utilizing in particular three poems; Emily Dickinson’s “A Little East of Jordan” (1914), Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Carrion Comfort” (1885), and Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Prodigal” (1951). The article will consider the intertextual use and significance of this narrative in the poetry discussed, whilst also considering the use of midrash, a mode of ancient biblical exegesis, within a modern context. The many varying aspects of the narrative of Genesis 32 will be discussed in an attempt to demonstrate the scope of interpretations this brief, yet extraordinarily ambiguous narrative can adopt, and the merit of midrashic interpretation in the context of understanding both the scriptural narrative itself and its intertextual use and significance within non-Biblical literature. This article will also attempt to ascertain the scriptural validity of the various interpretations of Genesis 32 each poem appears to adopt, and consider this in tandem with the intertextual and midrashic uses of other biblical narratives, such as The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), and The Sign of the Fleece (Judges 6:37), as well as considering the intertextual use of Scripture itself, as the midrashic interpretations of the narrative of Genesis 32 slips between Old and New Testament narratives. Finally, the article will consider the significance of the intertextual use of both New and Old Testament biblical narratives within the background of the poets, as well as the wider cultural and historical contexts of the poems discussed.