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.