Absalom Absalom!

The present work is a revised and abbreviated form of a dissertation defended at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in February 1977. The main part of the original dissertation consisted of an analytical close reading of 2 Sam 13,1-20,22; here a choice has been made of two substantial pericopes (13, 1-22; 17, 24-19,9). The study is made up of two parts: the first considers the text as a process, while in the second one the text is regarded as a product. These parts reflect two phases of the readers' activity: first there is a sequential study which pauses to examine selected pericopes as they gradually build up the complete story, and this is followed by a structural study which transcends the temporal succession and surveys the story as a whole.