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"The dove, the rainbow, and the unicorn": 170 years of the flood story retold for
children in words and pictures
England, E.E.E.
Publication date 2013
Link to publication
Citation for published version (APA):
England, E. E. E. (2013). "The dove, the rainbow, and the unicorn": 170 years of the flood story retold for children in words and pictures.
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ii Contents
List of Figures v
List of Charts ix
List of Supplementary Material xi
Abbreviations xiii
Part I: The Foundations
1. Introduction 1
Telling the Untold Story 2
The End of the World 3
Bible Publishing and Children, 1837-2006 6 The Journey So Far: Academia and Children’s Bibles 11 The Journey Continues: Structuring the Thesis 14
2. Methodology and Terminology 17
Why “Retelling”? 17
Data Collection 21
Quantitative Content Analysis 24
Who is the Reader of the Book? 28
Reading Narratives 31
Reading Words and Images 36
3. The Genesis Story 45
Narrative Boundaries and Structure 46
The Genesis Story/The Actors’ Stories 55
A. The Restriction of Life (6:1-4) 55
B. The Crime and Punishment (6:5-7, 11-13, 17; 7:4) 60 C. Noah the (Relatively) Righteous (6:8-10, 22; 7:1, 5) 64
D. The Ark (6:14-16) 68
E. The Occupants and Contents of the Ark (6:18-7:5) 69 F. The Flood and the Destruction (7:6-24) 77 G. God Remembers and the Waters Abate (8:1-5) 81
H. The Birds (8:6-12) 84
I. The Beginning of the New Creation (8:13-19) 86 J. Noah’s Sacrificial Offering Changes God’s Mind (8:20-22) 87 K. God Gives Humanity and Animals New Rules (Genesis 9:1–7) 90 L. God Makes a Covenant with Humanity and the Animals
(Genesis 9:8–17) 93
M. Noah’s Sons Fulfil God’s Command (9:18-19) 95
iii Part II: Flood Retellings for Children
4. God 99
Anthropomorphization in the Retellings 99
Emotional Anthropomorphization 100
Mind, Body, and Spirit 103
What Does God Look Like? 111
The Punisher/Savior God 125
The Diminished God 130
5. The Survivors 139
The Named Men 139
Noah 140
Shem, Ham, and Japheth 154
The Unnamed Women 158
Noah’s Wife 159
Noah’s Sons’ Wives 165
6. The Other Humans 173
The Wicked, Violent, and Corrupt 174
Adam and Eve (Genesis 3) 174
Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-16) 178
Humanity and the Daughters of Man (Genesis 6:1-4) 184
Crime and Criminals 191
Neighbors and Mockery 194
The Adults and Children that Drown 198
Adults 200
Children 203
Adults, Children and Didactic Embedding Narratives 211
7. The Animals and Fictitious Creatures 217
The Increasing Dominance of Animals 218
Contradictions, Change and Conflict in the Treatment of the Animal World 224
Salvation 225
Destruction 229
Birds 232
Sacrifice 235
Meat and Fear 238
Covenant 240
The Increasing Fictionality of the Animals 243
Historical Anachronism: Dinosaurs 244
Anthropomorphized and Talking Animals 246
Impossible Creatures 251
iv
Part III: From History to Fantasy, or Why Do the Unicorns Miss the Ark?
8. Retellings in the Water Margins of Fantasy Literature 261
Understanding Fantasy Literature 261
Unraveling the Knots in Fantasy Criticism 262
Author/Reader; Reality/Impossibility 265
Beyond the Impossible 268
Recognizing Fantasy in Children’s Bible Retellings 271
9. The Flood as Fantasy Literature 287
Can Biblical Narratives Be Fantasy? 287
The Flood and Its Fantasy Tropes 294
The Supernatural in Three Generations 294
Time 296
Epic Scale 297
Impossible Spaces 299
Secondary Worlds 300
The Genesis Flood Narrative as Immersive Fantasy 303 The Fantastic Is Dealt with Casually 304 The Protagonist Mediates the Information 305
The Protagonist Is the Antagonist 305
The Story Is Focused Inward, Shielding the External 306 The Flood Story: A Fun, Cozy Lesson in Truth? 307
Entertaining Didacticism 307
Cozy Catastrophe 308
Truth Reframed 310
Part IV: From “God’s Change of Heart” to “Noah’s Ark”
10. From “God’s Change of Heart” to “Noah’s Ark” 317
The Flood Story Reinterpreted 317
Let’s Worship God! 321
Let’s Learn with Noah! 323
Let’s Cook with Noah’s Wife! 324
Let’s Have Fun with Animals! 325
Let’s Pretend! 326
And So It Begins: Practical Uses for the Research Findings 330 Looking to the Future in Children’s Bible Research 332
Expanding the Field 333
Digital Humanities 338
Replicating the Methodology 340
i) Corpus Selection 340
ii) Design and Pilot 341
iii) Date Entry 343
iv) Data Analysis 343
v) Qualitative Analysis 344
v
Appendix A: Core Statistical Data 351
Flood Retellings for Children, Short Title Bibliography 357
Secondary Bibliography 373
Index of Biblical References 401
“The Dove, the Rainbow, and the Unicorn”: 170 Years of the Flood Story
Retold for Children in Words and Pictures, Summary 407
“De duif, de regenboog en de eenhoorn”: de zondvloed herverteld voor
