10.4225/03/590154e71d4f4 Britt, Brian Brian Britt Davidmachine Monash University 2017 Deuteronomistic history monash:110411 Hamletmachine 1832-3391 Cyborg journal article Paul Borgman Hamlet Robert Alter 1959.1/789089 Steven McKenzie Walter Benjamin Trauerspiel Baruch Halpern Niels Peter Lemche 10.2104/bc100021 David Tragedy Heiner Mller 2017-04-27 01:35:02 Journal contribution https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/journal_contribution/Davidmachine/4923344 Recent David studies from scholars such as Baruch Halpern and Steven McKenzie have called into question the historicity of biblical accounts and have substituted sacred images of David with decidedly secular ones. But the biblical David is neither purely secular nor sacred; rather, he filters the horrors of warfare and politics into the heroism and ideals of the Deuteronomistic tradition. By analogy to Heiner Mller's 1979 play, Hamletmachine, this paper considers the biblical portrait of David as a cyborg-like Davidmachine, a hybridic figure compelled to embody and commensurate competing, if not contradictory, religious and literary demands. As machine, the biblical David illustrates the place of necessity in the canon itself, a necessity that illustrates the concepts of tragedy and tradition in Walter Benjamin's study of German tragic drama. Copyright 2010 Brian Britt. No part of this article may be reproduced by any means without the written consent of the publisher.