STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONS OF THE BODY IN THE QUR'ANIC STORY OF JOSEPH

The Qur'anic story of Joseph comprises a series of episodes confronting him with ordeals that involve different types of physical confinement. His brothers cast him into a well, the wife of Potiphar (Al-Aziz) locks him up in her house in an attempt to seduce him, and the authorities imprison him despite his clear guiltlessness. Moreover, the physical act of his family's prostration before him signals his rise to power and glory.  Central to these events is the body, which is instrumental in knitting the whole narrative together. However, no critical attention has so far been devoted to investigating the role which the body plays in shaping the structure of this magnificent Qur'anic story. The present study aims at dealing with the unexplored point by examining the structural functions of the body in this regard. To achieve its objective, the study will present a structural analysis of the story, showing the mechanism by which the body contributes to its construction.
The approach which the study adopts is concerned more with the story's form than with its content, which has been the subject of copious theological interpretation. The study employs a framework of analysis based on the narratological insights of Daniel Punday and Claude Bremond. When combined, they provide an analytic tool capable of dissecting the story and revealing the structural nodes that the body creates throughout. According to this framework, the story consists of a number of elementary sequences knit together through "end-to-end" succession, a process in which the body plays a central role that takes different forms.