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Book Review on The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs
Outline
Thesis statement: Although Mr. Fox seems to have his tendency of the partiality in Biblical
Hermeneutics, he does prove his successful guidance in the readers’ comprehension of the
individuality of a text by discovering the diversified aspects from the works it most resembles
I. Preliminary Introduction
A. Title
B. Author
C. Publication Information
II. Introduction and Description
A. Using title as point of departure
B. Place of book in field
C. Evaluation of use of sources
III. Transition from Description to Evaluation and Analysis of Content
A. The ideas of investigation author has been partialized (or author’s bias)
B. Author’s literary approach and style
C. Contribution
IV. Conclusion
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The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs. Michael V. Fox. Madison: The Univ. of
Wisconsin Press, 1985. $24.95.
Based on a comparative literary perspective, Michael V. Fox gives his thorough commentaries
as well as rich interpretations on these ancient love songs in The Song of Songs and the Ancient
Egyptian Love Songs. As he states in the introduction, literary comparisons may give more ideas
about these songs and add the weight of analogy to particular or renewed interpretations. However,
(Sentence
Construction
)
even had such comparison altogether, still Mr. Fox puts more emphasis on the Song of Songs
rather than the Egyptian love poetry. Now that The Song of Songs is the main focus in this book
and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs work as the compared and supplementary companion, which
both of them are from the ancient Near East, one is inclined to grant Mr. Fox the approval of his
ancient or comparative literary scholarship in his choice of title.(?)
Mr. Fox's already published book(?) is a profound survey of the survived poetry about the
ancient views of love, which attributes to the reinforced importance of these Near Eastern views for
cultural history. (Suggestion: In analyzing ancient Middle Eastern views of love as expressed in
Bible and Egyptian love poetry, the book can serve as a cultural history of this area.)The Song of
Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs offers the readers the first comprehensive, comparative
literary-philological examination of these love poems.
(What are its main points?) Besides the
refreshed understanding provided from the commentaries, this book also includes complete
translations as well as a new hieroglyphic transcription of the Egyptian texts.
However, it seems that the author’s personal grasp of Hebrew and Semitic studies have been
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influenced greatly by the Biblical Hermeneutics, thus contributing to the lopsided tendency not
only in his complete translations but also authorial commentaries. Concerning the translation in
The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs, it’s noticeable that Mr. Fox agrees to use
the term “the Shulammite” as a convenient designation for the girl in the Song of Songs. Fox
professed that this adoption is for the sake of traditional usage, though he thinks that the Hebrew
word haššulammit is a common noun meaning “the prefect one” rather than a personal name or a
gentilic from a place name. (For me, it seems to be a matter of convenience in following the
convention in translation, while showing his different ideas in interpretation.)
However, Mr. Fox’s Hermeneutic lopsidedness in the Canticles has no influence in his
translation and authorial commentaries on these Egyptian poems. Taking the term “to make love”
(and “lovemaking”) as an example, Fox insists his uncompromising usage because of the historical
background of the poetry. In his introduction, the author explains that the term “to make love” (and
“lovemaking”) is not as a euphemism for sexual intercourse, as it is now commonly used, but in the
older sense, which includes a broad range of activities expressing sexual love, from caresses to
coitus. Nor is “sexual love” a euphemistic usage for coitus; actually it refers to a love between the
sexes in which one of the bonds is sexual desire.
(Aren’t both examples above those of his
looking into the original meanings of words and expressions, instead of merely following the
convention or being anachronistic?)
Although the lopsided Hermeneutic analysis and interpretation is obvious in the author’s translation
of as well as commentaries on The Song of Songs, which is his primary focus in The Song of Songs and
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the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs, Mr. Gray is still authoritative in his not only critical but professional
examination of the Israelite songs and Egyptian poems. In interpreting these love songs, Mr. Fox offers
a literary comparison of the Israelite songs and Egyptian songs as two entireties, so as to help the readers
find the similarities as well as differences of these ancient poems much easier. Fox’s literary approach to
the comparison and contrast, as he confesses, is his pursued model for the genre-built concept. This
model is used to good purpose, thus help the readers to find the similarities of literary techniques, theme,
and concepts of love. It’s not, however, the discovery of similarities alone that justifies literary
comparison. Differences are no less important in this book. Fox believes that the value of literary
comparison is often the following offer of a contrast as well, thus showing the readers where the work at
hand diverges from similar work. Fox’s goal in this book is the discovery of sources and parallels is not
the end of comparative criticism, but an aid to deeper understanding or reinterpretation. Thus, in guiding
the readers’ comprehension of the individuality of a text by discovering where it diverges from the
works it most resembles, Mr. Fox's work indeed lays claim to such status. (This ¶ is well written as an
introduction to the book’s methodology and purpose, but it can be shortened. More importantly, as I
pointed out above, you didn’t explain the actual differences and similarities between these two pieces of
work.)
In The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs, Mr. Fox offers the reader a
boarder, clearer comparative approach not only to appreciating but also understanding the artistic
unity and meaning of the Canticles as well as these ancient Egyptian love songs. The author treats
both works as love songs in the same genre, which speak directly of the individual feelings and
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experiences of premarital love in a whole entirety. The discussion on the composition, historical
sources, social setting, and the voice and mode of presentation of the Canticles especially gives the
reader a better grasp of its overall literary unity while in the meanwhile supplying several
important concepts which play an integral part in supporting this unity (e.g., the extensive use of
repetitions and associative sequences). Also helpful is its emphasis on the prominent theme that
stand out in The Song of Songs, which has supplied several useful terms related to understanding
the overall literary structure of the Song, insomuch as “Courting Songs” and the “Mortuary Songs:
Love and Death” or “description song”, etc.
The author's partiality for Biblical Hermeneutics, however, is in no way diminishing the literary
appeal of this book. The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs is very much like the
work from a professor of the academic background of Hebrew and Semitic studies – the
enhancement, reinforced respect, and highly appreciation of these ancient masterworks of Near
Eastern love songs. (rep)
Andrew, Hsieh Hua-mao
Graduate student of Graduate Institute of English, Fu-Jen Catholic University