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| author |
Joshua Turpin
| | title |
Reading Ruth Alongside Indigenous Histories in the United States
| | abstract |
This thesis is an analysis of the Book of Ruth in conversation with the history of indigenous citizens of the United States as a comparison between the Book of Ruth the struggle of the indigenous tribes with the United States helps develop a critique of assimilation and provides a deeper understanding of the identity and culture politics at play within each story. The majority of each chapter is an analysis and a re-reading of Ruth's story so as to re-negotiate how the story functions. I read Ruth as a story about a woman that is caught in the patterns of assimilation and finds herself giving up her independence and her old culture so that she might survive in a town which is hostile to her foreign-ness. After analyzing the chapter, I then describe an aspect of how Indian communities either read the text or could read to the text in light of various historical events. Each chapter contains a focus on a different aspect of that conversation, though the connections exist throughout the whole book of Ruth. This is used to criticize notions of assimilation, analyzing how assimilation damages both communities and individuals. These include the usurpation of power, removal of children from their families, forcing people to move from their ancestral lands, and many other issues that arise. However, despite the ways that assimilation covers over difference, both Ruth and the tribes find identity in story. Ruth continues to be a powerful figure, and tribes continue to fight for their sovereignty.
| | school |
The Theological School, Drew University
| | degree |
M.A. (2020)
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| advisor |
Althea Spencer-Miller
Jennifer Quigley
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| full text | JTurpin.pdf |
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