'Speaking to my heart': a close reading of Qohelet as a literary character
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Date
11/01/2023Item status
Restricted AccessEmbargo end date
11/01/2024Author
Song, Ted U
Metadata
Abstract
This project seeks to analyze Qohelet’s first-person speech as a route to understand his
character through the words spoken by himself. In scholarship, although Qohelet is
recognized as a character, it is often analyzed with the Solomonic figure in Hebrew biblical
history or certain social roles from the presumed historical setting of Ecclesiastes.
However, Ecclesiastes’ social setting, dating, and authorship are constantly debated as
historical evidence are scarce. Therefore, this thesis proposes to reconstruct the Qohelet
character by taking the text as literary evidence. It aims to explore the richness of this
character by employing the close reading method proposed by New Criticism in English
literary studies which continues to influence the way to read a literary text today. It
focuses on providing a narrative reading and analysis of the text particularly on passages
(1:12-2:26; 3:9-22; 7:15-8:1; and 8:16-9:12) where Qohelet specifically speaks to himself,
to his personified heart (לב ,(or to his intended audience. Close reading suggests stripping
away any historically authorial and editorial influences on the meaning of the immediate
text, and in turn asks how the text may bring out meaning from its content, structure,
rhetorical devices, and literary construct by taking the text as a literary unity. Through
dissecting the narrative first-person components, the research should show how
Qohelet’s character development functions within the text, how the autobiographical
voice influences or participates in the meaning of the text, and how these elements
simultaneously shape the character of Qohelet and the sapiential theology of the book