Description
Book SynopsisVita Daphna Arbel uses critical theories of gender to offer an alternative reading of the multilayered conceptualization of the Song of Song''s feminine protagonist: the most beautiful woman. Arbel treats the most beautiful woman as a culturally constructed and performed representation of woman, and situates this representation within the cultural-discursive contexts in which the Song partly emerged. She examines the gender norms and cultural ideologies it both reflects and constructs, and considers the manner in which this complex representation disrupts rigid, ahistorical notions of femininity, and how it consequently indirectly characterizes womanhood as dynamic and diverse.Finally, Arbel examines the reception and impact of these ideas on later conceptualizations of the Song of Songs'' female protagonist with a heuristic examination of Mark Chagall's Song of Songs painting cycle
, Le Cantique des Cantiques. These compositionsselected for their diverse depictions
Trade ReviewThis monograph studies "the most beautiful woman" (Song 1:8, 5:9, 6:2), the female protagonist of the Song, using gender criticism and other critical methods ... This is a fine addition to a growing library of scholarly works on the Song of Songs. * The Bible Today *
Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. On Patriarchy, Female Eroticism, and Idealized Femininity 3. On Many Shades of Femininity 4. On Conformity and Resistance through Dressing and Undressing 5. ‘The Most Beautiful Woman” and Later Generations Bibliography Index
