| Summary: | This thesis relates three subjects of inquiry - the nature and function of narrative,
the formation and maintenance of individual and communal identity, and the construction
of the human cosmos and the places within it - to develop a theory of the function of
narrative in the construction of the human self and world. This theoretical framework is
applied to the world projected by the Hebrew Bible, and, in particular, to the role of
wilderness places within this cosmos. Wilderness is examined by means of the concept of
"liminality," as that concept has been developed by Arnold van Gennep and Victor
Turner. The thesis concludes with an examination of the rabbinic rite of Passover, and
argues that this rite utilizes a narrative of wilderness journey to enable contemporary
participants to integrate the chaos and disorderliness of everyday life in a healthy and
productive way, according to the pattern of a shared myth. The integration of life
experience according to the shared myth brings about the self-identification of the
individual with the larger community, and provides the community with an understanding
of itself sufficient to sustain itself through the coming year. === Arts, Faculty of === Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of === Graduate
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