Browsing by Author "Jang, Young"

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    Narrative function of the Apocalypse
    (Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Theology, 2002) Jang, Young
    Apocalyptic stories, as rhetorical-symbolic narratives, urge the hearer to view his/her historical situation afresh and to act accordingly. To find out how this happens, the transforming power of the Apocalypse has been analysed according to two contexts: the literary and the socio-historical. Through his apocalyptic narrative, John wants to illumine the reality behind the context of the audience and to transform them into a Christian community with a shared vision and conviction. In a broad sense, the book is concerned with the author’s understanding of God (narrative theology), and how it can be related to the audience’s response (narrative function). From this study of the rhetorical function of the book, we may conclude that John tries to persuade the evildoers to repent and the faithful to remain witnesses in the world.
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    A narratological approach to the structure of the apocalypse of John
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-12) Jang, Young; Combrink, H. J. B.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Old and New Testament.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study aims to investigate the structure of the Apocalypse from the narratological viewpoint, to further the adequate interpretation of the book. Throughout this work. three things are presupposed: (1) the Apocalypse follows an episodic, non-chronological pattern; (2) the Apocalypse is a coherent unit: (3) the Apocalypse. as a genre. should be defined by means of form. content. and function. To start with. earlier attempts to reveal the structure of the Apocalypse are briefly dealt with in chapter 2. in order to establish both their weak and strong points. With these in mind. this study attempts a three-dimensional approach consisting of syntactic structure (form). semantic structure (content). and pragmatic structure (function). In chapter 3. this approach is supported by Chatman's narrative paradigm (1980) as a model for narrative analysis. In chapter 4, to establish the syntactic structure. we started by delimiting the whole text into many small parts - "partial narrative units" - by using various narrative elements. and then assembled the small sections into "basic (or complete) narrative units (BNU or ULl )" by using several identifying criteria for them. and continued to identify the "bigger narrative units" (UL2.3.4) by using various integrating strategies until the biggest narrative. which comprises the whole text as a coherent unit ( L.5). emerged. As a result. the narrative-svntactic structure (viz. the surface-level svntactic structure) , ' and the fundamental-syntucnc structure (viz. the deep-level syntactic structure) of the book are disclosed at the end of chapter 4. In chapter 5, then. the content (the narrative theology) of the book i hown throuzh b both the narrative-semantic structure (viz. the theme-oriented concentric pattern) and {he [undamental-semantic structure (viz. the macrostructure). both of which are based on the syntactic structure (esp .. plot). Finally, in chapter 6, to show how the book functions to persuade the hearerslreaders in both the literary context and the external (socio-historical) context, the transforming power to reverse the old worldview of the hearerslreaders is sought through the narrative strategies of the book in both contexts. Briefly speaking, while chapter four is related to the syntactic structure (form) of the Apocalypse and chapter five is related to its semantic structure (content), chapter six can be said to correspond to the pragmatic aspect (function). To conclude, this study could modestly be said to articulate the following results: (1) The syntactic structure of the Apocalypse, as an integral unit. shows movement from an unstable state to a stable condition, which means that God's sovereignty will be established on earth -r'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (2) The semantic structure shows that the Apocalypse revolves around the activity of Jesus Christ. who is the cohering theological-clement of the structure of the book. (3) The functional structure shows that the Apocalypse rhetorically requests the faithful to witness to God's word until the end of the world and the wayward to repent because the time is near.