Hva er det med Gilead? Det bibelske navnet Gilead i moderne romaner

Two famous contemporary novelists, the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood and the American writer Marilynne Robinson, both use the biblical name Gilead in their novels. Atwood names the dystopian republic in The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and The Testament (2019) Gilead, and Robinson uses Gilead both as title for her 2004 novel as well as a name for the little Midwestern town depicted there. Why Gilead? What possible meaning is gained in these modern texts by using this biblical name? To try to answer these questions the article first investigates texts associated with the toponym Gilead in the Hebrew Bible to elucidate possible meaning attached to it there, and secondly the meaning attached to Gilead in the novels. Inspirational for this investigation is the new subject curriculum for KRLE in Fagfornyelsen 2020 where learning outcome is described in very general terms. This means that for instance future Norwegian students’ biblical knowledge may be unequal throughout the country and most likely weaker than at present. Does that matter when it comes to appreciating such novels as the ones discussed here?