Earthing the Cosmic Queen: Relevance Theory and the Song of Songs

Earthing the Cosmic Queen explores the connection of poet, world, and text in the Song of Songs based on the process of reading as understood by Relevance Theory. This linguistic theory reveals new insights into the Song of Songs by tracing associations between the poet and her world. The main portion of this book involves a discourse analysis of the entire Song for the purpose of revealing the poet's cognitive environment and communicative intentions. Seven sites of discourse are explored: entreaties, wasf, the daughters, royalty, the brothers, losing and finding, and the Garden. The Garden of Eden strongly figures and could be considered a flashpoint of engagement. There is suggestion in the text that there is a crisis for the poet regarding her place in ancient Hebrew society. Thus, the Garden of Eden texts and the Song of Songs are carefully contrasted to highlight the contours of her radical message.