D 5 Frames, a repetitive structure

When information or language that was reported at the beginning of a narrative is repeated at the end, this type of repetition is closural almost by definition. It encloses the unit, bringing the reader back to the starting point. As a narrative device it has various names, including frame, inclusio, and envelope structure.31 _{A frame helps define the}

beginning and end of a narrative because it contributes to the perception that the narrative

29 _{In Gen 32:33, the imperfect form of the verb “to eat” is used:}

y’oklu.

30 _{In this example, Gen 12:9, the imperfect with waw-consecutive form of the verb “to journey” is used:}

wayyissa‘.

31 _{The narratological definition of “frame” is different from the literary definition that I am using here.}

Gerald Prince, in Dictionary of Narratology, 32, defines a frame as “a set of related mental data

representing various aspects of reality and enabling human perception and comprehension of these aspects. …More generally, narrative can be considered a frame allowing for certain kinds of organization and understandings of reality.”

has a “distinct identity,” is “whole,” and, logically has “internal coherence,” as B. H. Smith noted about effects of repetition.32 As readers recall the opening words (or become aware of them upon re-reading), they see that the writer is “closing the loop,” the frame is “enclosing the story.”

or the story. 34 n,” - n,

33 _{The writer is completing the discourse. The}

example of the Tower of Babel frame noted in the introduction to this chapter, with its repetition of “language” and “all mankind,” helps define the beginning and end of

Many other narratives are framed in a similar way. The end of the P-source creation narrative in Gen 2:4a repeats terms from its opening verse (Gen 1:1), “heave “earth,” and “created” (šamayim,’areṣ, bara’). In the J-source Flood narrative words

related to man’s behavior and God’s intentions repeat at the beginning and end (Gen 6:5 7 and Gen 8:21-2). Initially, God spoke of “man’s wickedness/evil” (ra‘at ha’adam). After the flood is over, God accepts this quality of man, observing, “The devisings of man’s mind are evil from his youth” (ha’adam ra‘) (Gen 8:21). God’s initial intentio that he would “blot out from the earth the men whom I created—men together with

32 _{Barbara Herrnstein Smith,}

Poetic Closure,25.

33 _{Chris Wykoff, in “Have We Come Full Circle Yet? Closure, Psycholinguistics, and Problems of}

Recognition with the inclusio,” warns that this is not always so in the psalms that he studies. The

perception of a frame, or inclusio, as he calls it, is not always evident to the reader, or it may be evident to

one reader and not another. Therefore, he says, it is effective only when it is recognized as such. He draws, he explains, upon psycholinguistics to explain that some patterns are recognized and others are less so. For example, the shorter the text, the more likely a person will recognize a repeated element at the back end (481); if more elements are repeated, recognition is easier, and the more distinctive the first part of the frame, the more recognizable the back end (482). At times, he says, graphical and phonological similarity can override semantic meaning, and thus word-plays and puns can strengthen inclusios (498). He suggests

that with somewhat incomplete frames, sometimes the mind says “close enough” (500). He concludes that the recognition of a frame is “more art than science.”

beasts, creeping things, birds of the sky…” is referred to at the end as God explains that

“never again” would he “destroy every living being…” and the earth “shall not cease”

(Gen 8:

After

21-22).

God appears to Abraham in Gen 17 and explains the covenant and circumcision, its sign.35 That narrative is framed by references to Abraham’s age. The first words of the narrative explain that this occurred when “Abram was ninety-nine years old.” God’s promises are made, the narrative ends with an epilogue in which Abraham circumcises himself and those in his household. Again, Abraham’s age is mentioned: “Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin” (Gen

35 _{Gen 17 is an example of a narrative that has very little “action.” Gerald Prince, in}

A Grammar of Stories,

24, suggests that an abstract “rule of grammar” may is helpful in defining this type of narrative. A mere three related events are enough to define a story, and thus clarify where the end-section begins. There is a first event or statement, then a second, which chronologically follows the first, and then a third, which is caused by the second. In Genesis 17, this approach is helpful. First, Abraham is old; then, God visits him and bestows a “covenant” (brit) upon him. The balance of the narrative involves defining, and then in an

epilogue, enacting the brit. Other narratives that benefit from this approach are those in which the only

“action” is a theophany such as Gen 35:9-15.

The Kafalenos paradigm for Gen 17:1-27 can still be used:

Function Causal steps in the narrative

EQ Equilibrium Abraham is ninety-nine years old (and has no children).

A Destabilizing [unspoken] God has not yet established brit with

Abraham.

C C-actant decides to get involved God offers to make brit, explains promises with its rules,

4-16.

D C-actant is tested (or questioned) Abraham questions God because he believes he can’t

have a child because he will be 100 years old and his wife ninety, and he is concerned about Ishmael, 17-18. E C-actant responds to test (or

question)

God explains that his wife shall bear a son, Isaac, and with him and his heirs the covenant will be maintained, 19. Ishmael will be blessed, 20.

H C-actant primary action God declares, “my covenant will be with Isaac; Sarah

shall bear him…” 21.

I Success (or failure) of H Abraham believes that these things will come to pass, as

demonstrated by his subsequent circumcision of himself and his household (in 23-27).

Eq New equilibrium Abraham believes he will have children.

17:24). The epilogue itself (Gen 17:23-27) is framed with its own repetitions: “Abraham and his son Ishmael,” Abraham’s “homeborn slaves,” “slaves who were purchased,” and “circum

t

a

nge in

ition, readers come to the text with the knowledge that there are seven days in a week.

cised.”