Body as Landscape, Love as Intoxication: Conceptual Metaphors in the Song of Songs

ISBN-10: 088414383X
ISBN-13: 9780884143833
Category: Religion
Pages: 314
Language: English
Published: 2019-09-13
Publisher: SBL Press
Author: Brian P. Gault

Description

Explore metaphors in the exquisite and enigmatic poetry of Song of Songs One of the chief difficulties in interpreting the Song's lyrics is the unusual imagery used to depict the lovers' bodies. Why is the maiden's hair compared to a flock of goats (4:1), the man’s cheeks likened to garden beds of spice (5:13), and the eyes of both lovers described as doves (4:1; 5:12)? While scholars speculate on the significance of these images, a systematic inquiry into the Song's body metaphors is curiously absent. Based on insights from cognitive linguistics, this study incorporates biblical and comparative data to uncover the meaning of these metaphors surveying literature in the eastern Mediterranean (and beyond) that shares a similar form (poetry) and theme (love). Gault presents an interpretation of the Song's body imagery that sheds light on the perception of beauty in Israel and its relationship to surrounding cultures. Features Exploration of the Song's use of universal themes and culturally specific variations Discussion of the Song's literary structure and unity

Get the book

Similar books

Review of Biblical Literature, 2021
By Alicia J. Batten
Scholars seem to have had an easier time studying childhood in biblical texts. See, e.g., Kristine Henriksen Garroway, Growing Up in Ancient Israel: Children in Material Culture and Biblical Texts ...
Finding Beauty in the Bible: An Aesthetic Commentary on the Song of Songs
By Robert D. Miller II, OFS
... Body as Landscape , Love as Intoxication : Conceptual Metaphors in the Song of Songs . Atlanta : Society of Biblical Literature , 2019 . " The Fragments of Canticles from Qumran " RevQ 24 ( 2010 ) 351–71 . Gbic , Milica Ljaljevic ...
Conquered Conquerors: Love and War in the Song of Songs
By Danilo Verde
... Body as Landscape, Love as Intoxication: Conceptual Metaphors in the Song of Songs. AIL 36. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2019. Gavins, Joanna. “Metaphor Studies in Retrospect and Prospect: An Interview with Gerard Steen.” RCL 12 (2014): 493–510 ...
Where Is the Way to the Dwelling of Light?: Studies in Genesis, Job and Linguistics in Honor of Ellen van...

... Yannai on Genesis: An Invitation to Piyyut (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2010). Mirsky, Aharon, Yosse ben Yosse: Poems(Jerusalem: The Bialik Institute, 1977). Novick, Tzvi, Piyyut and Midrash: Form, Genre, and History ...
Human Interaction with the Natural World in Wisdom Literature and Beyond: Essays in Honour of Tova L. Forti
By Katharine J. Dell, Mordechai Cogan, David A. Glatt-Gilad
... persuasive force or make them easier to refute, they formed an integral part of the ancient art of rhetoric (cf. Aristotle, Rhet. 2.24.3). While employing this rhetorical strategy, the association of the flock metaphor with the two ...
Silhouettes of Scripture: Considering the Contextual Approach with Form Criticism
By David B. Schreiner, Drew S. Holland
... Body as Landscape , Love as Intoxication : Conceptual Metaphors in the Song of Songs , AIL ( Atlanta : SBL Press , 2019 ) , 1–32 . 20. This relationship is usually labeled as " allegorical , " although Delitzsch nuances this term ...
Planting Letters and Weaving Lines: Calligraphy, The Song of Songs, and The Saint John's Bible
By Jonathan Homrighausen
... Body as Landscape, Love as Intoxication: Conceptual Metaphors in the Song of Songs. Ancient Israel and Its Literature 36. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2019. Gerhards, Meik. “Clothing and Nudity in the Song of Songs.” In Clothing and Nudity in ...
Song of Songs: An Introduction and Study Guide: The Bible’s Only Love Poem
By J. Cheryl Exum
The Bible's Only Love Poem J. Cheryl Exum. Black , Fiona C. The Artifice of Love : Grotesque Bodies in the Song of Songs ( London : T & T Clark , 2009 ) . Gault , Brian P. Body as Landscape , Love as Intoxication : Conceptual Metaphors ...
Dress, Adornment, and the Body in the Hebrew Bible
By Laura Quick
... Body as Landscape , Love as Intoxication : Conceptual Metaphors in the Song of Songs ( Ancient Israel and Its Literature 36 ; Atlanta : SBL Press , 2019 ) , 160–8 . Job 42:15 : “ Nowhere in the land could women be found who were as ...
Sacred Geography
By Marko Pogacnik
... body, the landscape, if we did not touch her breasts? Without that experience, it is as if we are holding an empty, nicely ornamented vessel in our hands, without having drunk, without being filled and intoxicated with her wisdom. It is ...