The Book within the Book: Writing in Deuteronomy

This volume offers a re-think of the question of Moses’ authorship of Deuteronomy. Whereas traditional interpretation equated the book written by Moses with Deuteronomy, and even with the Pentateuch, and while critical historical exegesis endeavours to identify Deuteronomy’s successive redactors, this study assesses the literary claim of Deuteronomy as far as Moses’ writing is concerned. The first study describes the process of communication in Deuteronomy’s represented world (by Moses to the sons of Israel); it next characterizes the Book of Deuteronomy as communication (by the narrator to the reader); it eventually focuses on Deuteronomy’s powerful embodiment of the theme of the book within the book . Thus approached, the author asserts that Deuteronomy shows itself as a narrative theory of what (holy) writ is all about.