Abstract:
This article explores the ethical implications of Dinah's silence in the text and interpretive traditions of Genesis 34. I compare her plight to that of contemporary rape survivors and propose a means of referring to the testimonies of these survivors as a hermeneutical key in order to conceptualize Dinah's narrative elision as an intrinsic part of her rape experience. To illustrate this hermeneutical process, I then focus on one element of the text in particular; Dinah's identification by her family as one who has been defiled as the result of her rape. Using this feminist hermeneutical strategy, I hope to open the door to further readings of Genesis 34, which may endeavour to grant Dinah more sympathetic interpretive consideration, protest against her marginalization, and give her a voice with which to tell her story.
