338 - Irony in Mark's Gospel: Text and Subtext; Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 72

Irony in Mark's Gospel: Text and Subtext, Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 72
By Jerry Camery-Hoggatt
Cambridge University Press, 1992. 219 pp. $49.95.

Camery-Hoggatt defines dramatic irony as dissonance between two or more levels of narrative discourse, inviting subtextual subtlety and shock.

339 - Irony in Mark's Gospel: Text and Subtext; Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 72

After reviewing the state of the question, he considers both the social functions of ironic language and the literary elements by which readers of a narrative are oriented to its author's intent. The interaction of these social and literary functions is explicated in terms of multiple reading competencies assumed or generated by a text. Presupposing this analytic framework, the second half of the investigation surveys the crafted ironies pervading Mark's Gospel in its entirety. The study concludes by summarizing some literary and social implications.

The author has undertaken a formidable task in constricted space. Consequently, the ties between his method and exegesis are occasionally loose, his commentary on Markan ironies admittedly underdeveloped. The connection between the socio-literary and theological dimensions of Markan irony also invites further attention. Nevertheless, Camery-Hoggatt offers the most systematic, creatively interdisciplinary examination to date of a widely recognized characteristic of Markan style. His work repays careful reading.

C. Clifton Black
Perkins School of Theology
Dallas, TX.