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15 - The Song of Songs and Two Biblical Retellings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2020

By
Emily O. Gravett
Edited by
Calum Carmichael
Calum Carmichael
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

A great deal of literature attempts to reimagine, rework, revamp, retrieve – in short, retell – the Bible. The growing body of work known as “biblical reception history” is devoted to studying this phenomenon. The essay continues down this productive path: first a review of the biblical Song of Songs, noting the points most salient for understanding later retellings; next, detailing what biblical retellings are and how we might define them. Turning to the essay’s focus, there is close analyses of the novel Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (1977) and the short story “Song of Songs” by Darcey Steinke (2004) as they interact with the Bible. These stories show how biblical retellings are like a field, with some closer to the center (i.e. the Bible) than others. The essay concludes by suggesting why retellings exist in the first place.

Keywords

Song of Songsretellingsbiblical receptionreception historyreception theoryToni MorrisonDarcey Steinkeafterlivesmidrashintertextuality
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the Bible and Literature , pp. 256 - 272
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Further Reading

Breed, Brennan W., Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History (Bloomington, IN, 2014).Google Scholar
Manseau, , Peter, and Sharlet, Jeff, Killing the Buddha: A Heretic’s Bible (New York, 2004).Google Scholar
Pope, Marvin, Song of Songs: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Garden City, NY, 1977).Google Scholar
Sherwood, Yvonne, A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives: The Survival of Jonah in Western Culture (Cambridge, 2000).Google Scholar
Stahlberg, Lesleigh C., Sustaining Fictions: Intertextuality, Midrash, Translation, and the Literary Afterlife of the Bible (New York, 2008).Google Scholar
Swindell, Anthony C., Reworking the Bible: The Literary Reception-History of Fourteen Biblical Stories (Sheffield, 2010).Google Scholar
Wright, Melanie, Moses in America: The Cultural Uses of Biblical Narrative (New York, 2003).Google Scholar

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