Hi Caleb,

Glad it was a blessing to you. My prayer is that discussions like this lead us into more
reading of God's word, and a deeper understand of it and joy when we do.

There are basically two types of things you can read.

First, works that specifically address the biblical text. To that end, here's a short list:

Alter, R. The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic Books, 1981.
_____. The Five Books of Moses. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008.
_____. Genesis. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

(he also has translation of Joshua, Judges, Ruth etc.)
_____. The World of Biblical Literature. New York: Basic Books, 1992.
Alter, R. and F. Kermode. The Literary Guide to the Bible. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 1987
Bar-Efrat, S. Narrative Art in the Bible. Translated by D. Shefer-Vanson. Sheffield:
Almond Press, 1989. (Easier to read, a favorite of mine. Not as comprehensive as Alter,
but insightful.)
Berlin, A. Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative. Winona Lake, Ind.:
Eisenbrauns, 1994.
Fokkelman, J. P. Reading Biblical Narrative: An Introductory Guide. Louisville:
Westminster John Knox, 2000. (I have not read yet)
Powell, M. A. What is Narrative Criticism? Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990. (super
easy)
Sternberg, M. The Poetics of Biblical Narrative: Ideological Literature and the Drama of
Reading. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985. (harder, longer, but he's a must in
the conversation)

A recent study on Repetition in Films and in 1 Samuel is "Say it Again Sam" by
Grenville Kent.

In the Gospels, you can look at "Mark as Story" by Rhoads, Dewey and Michie and also
"The Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel" by my co-advisor, R. Alan Culpepper.

Finally, Cornelis Bennema has two texts on The Gospel of John. "Encountering Jesus" is
on the characters, and I've read it, and it's good. His commentary, (can't lay my hands on
it at the moment, though I own it) I haven't read yet.


And secondly, more advance, would be works on how "story" or narrative works in
general. If I were you, I wouldn't "fiddle" w these until later, but if you go into doctoral
work on narrative studies, these are a must.

Chatman, S. B. Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1978.
_____. What Novels can do that Films cant (and Vice Versa). Pages 435-451 in Film
Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. Edited by L. Braudy and M. Cohen. New
York: Oxford University Press,
1999.
Forster, E. M. Aspects of the Novel. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1954. (This
one sort of started it all...w/ characters at least)
Harvey, W. J. Character and the Novel. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1965.
Rimmon-Kenan, S. Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. London: Routledge, 2002.
And this guy, whom I have not read, but should have by now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9rard_Genette