Negotiation in the Contact Zone: Reading Joseph and Aseneth from a Postcolonial Perspective

In Joseph and Aseneth, religious difference is the decisive boundary that separates Aseneth (gentile) and Joseph (Jew). Therefore, Aseneth’s conversion is essential to cross over this boundary in the narrative. In this respect, one may see Joseph and Aseneth as a colonizing text that seems to romanticize Aseneth’s conversion. However, colonial realities never result one-sidedly from the intention of the powerful; they are full of ambiguity, ambivalence, and hybridity. Utilizing the postcolonial concept of contact zone, this article deals with which negotiations between the disparate groups occur in the contact zone, and consequently what unexpected changes happen after the encounter. The union of the two groups in Joseph and Aseneth is characterized as an ambiguous relation rather than as a unilateral assimilation. Aseneth becomes a shelter for anyone who is in danger beyond the religious boundary by redefining the identity given by the angel, City of Refuge.