Susanna’s Body

Summary: This article approaches the story of Susanna (Dan 13) from the perspective of the rhetoric of the
|body. It essentially asks: what story does Susanna’s body tell us? Using insights mainly from the work of
|Michel Foucault, Susanna’s body is viewed as a strategy for resisting one form of patriarchy in support of
|another. The analysis is based on the text of Theodotion, a version of the story that is more sexualized than
|the Septuagintal version. Susanna’s body is viewed, firstly, in the context of sexual deviance and taboo –
|this point is brought into relation with the concepts of voyeurism, censorship, and the corporeal paradox of
|the bodies of the elders, which also portray a narrative, namely the narrative of the grotesque. They are the
|opposite of Susanna and Daniel. Secondly, the article examines the role of Susanna’s body as an innocent
|and chaste body, especially in relation to the concepts of male discipline, the law, faith, punishment, and
|patriarchy.