A Critical Engagement

This volume honours the distinctive contribution to HebrewBible studies over four decades by Cheryl Exum, ProfessorEmerita of Biblical Studies in the University of Sheffield. Herspecial interests have lain, first, in the modern literarycriticism of the Hebrew Bible, where her key work wasTragedy and Biblical Narrative: Arrows of the Almighty.Asecond area has been feminist criticism of the Hebrew Bible;here her notable contributions were Fragmented Women:Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives and Plotted,Shot, and Painted: Cultural Representations of BiblicalWomen. A more recent, and now almost favourite, theme is theBible and cultural studies, especially the Bible and art. Keyworks here have been a series of edited volumes, such asBeyond the Biblical Horizon: The Bible and the Arts, and TheBible in Film / The Bible and Film. Her fourth area ofcontinuing interest has been the Song of Songs, with manyarticles culminating in her perceptive commentary in the OldTestament Library series.In this rich volume, 25 of her friends and colleagues offer herpapers on all these themes. Several are on or around the Songof Songs (Graeme Auld, Fiona Black, David Clines, SaraJaphet, Martti Nissinen, Yair Zakovitch), and topics offeminist interest (Yairah Amit, Athalya Brenner, ClaudiaCamp, Hugh Pyper, Jack Sasson). Cultural studies arerepresented by Alice Bach, Hans Barstad, Andrew Davies,David Gunn, Martin O'Kane, John Sawyer and Ellen vanWolde, and literary criticism by Michael Fox, Edwin Good,Norman Gottwald, Edward Greenstein, Francis Landy, BurkeLong and Hugh Williamson.