O mother, where art thou? An Irigarayan reading of the book of Chronicles

The Book of Chronicles silences women in specific ways, most radically through their association with maternity. Drawing on the work of two feminist philosophers, Luce Irigaray and Michelle Boulous Walker, Julie Kelso reveals two principal strategies of silencing women in Chronicles: disavowal and repression of the maternal body." "The association of women with maternity, along with the disavowal and repression of the maternal body as "origin" of the masculine subject, effects and guarantees the silence of the feminine, enabling "man" to imagine himself as sole producer of his world. These strategies of silencing the "feminine" need to be understood in relation to the relative absence of women from the narrative world of Chronicles. Kelso argues that Chronicles depends on the absence and silence of women for its imaginary coherence.