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Animal Poetics : Marianne Moore, Ted Hughes and the Song of Songs

Strømmen, Hannah M. LU (2017) In Literature & Theology 31(4). p.405-419
Abstract
In animal studies the Bible is often deemed a problematic anthropocentric heritage. There are, however, texts in the biblical archive that trouble such a judgment. Despite the picture given in scholarship on the Song of Songs, that (human) love and sex are at the centre of the poetry, animals are everywhere in the text. In order to take account of these animals and the relationship between animality and poetry, I suggest that the twentieth-century poems of Marianne Moore and Ted Hughes provide a promising point of departure for rethinking the animal imagery of the Song of Songs. Moore and Hughes are both known for their animal imagery that plays with the possibilities and impossibilities of representation, exposing the tensions between the... (More)
In animal studies the Bible is often deemed a problematic anthropocentric heritage. There are, however, texts in the biblical archive that trouble such a judgment. Despite the picture given in scholarship on the Song of Songs, that (human) love and sex are at the centre of the poetry, animals are everywhere in the text. In order to take account of these animals and the relationship between animality and poetry, I suggest that the twentieth-century poems of Marianne Moore and Ted Hughes provide a promising point of departure for rethinking the animal imagery of the Song of Songs. Moore and Hughes are both known for their animal imagery that plays with the possibilities and impossibilities of representation, exposing the tensions between the metaphorical and the literal, the mythic and the real. Rather than providing a niche ‘animal reading’ of the Song of Songs, I argue that the links between Moore, Hughes and the Song, open up for a renewed exploration of the idea of biblical poetry, as well as a rich engagement with the animal lives that abide so abundantly in these textual landscapes. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Animal studies, modernist poetry, Song of Songs, Marianne Moore, Ted Hughes
in
Literature & Theology
volume
31
issue
4
pages
14 pages
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85039444435
ISSN
0269-1205
DOI
10.1093/litthe/frx029
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
459a76a5-3bbb-495d-aa3b-99ce53c3025f
date added to LUP
2024-03-29 13:03:45
date last changed
2024-04-18 14:41:32
@article{459a76a5-3bbb-495d-aa3b-99ce53c3025f,
  abstract     = {{In animal studies the Bible is often deemed a problematic anthropocentric heritage. There are, however, texts in the biblical archive that trouble such a judgment. Despite the picture given in scholarship on the Song of Songs, that (human) love and sex are at the centre of the poetry, animals are everywhere in the text. In order to take account of these animals and the relationship between animality and poetry, I suggest that the twentieth-century poems of Marianne Moore and Ted Hughes provide a promising point of departure for rethinking the animal imagery of the Song of Songs. Moore and Hughes are both known for their animal imagery that plays with the possibilities and impossibilities of representation, exposing the tensions between the metaphorical and the literal, the mythic and the real. Rather than providing a niche ‘animal reading’ of the Song of Songs, I argue that the links between Moore, Hughes and the Song, open up for a renewed exploration of the idea of biblical poetry, as well as a rich engagement with the animal lives that abide so abundantly in these textual landscapes.}},
  author       = {{Strømmen, Hannah M.}},
  issn         = {{0269-1205}},
  keywords     = {{Animal studies; modernist poetry; Song of Songs; Marianne Moore; Ted Hughes}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{405--419}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Literature & Theology}},
  title        = {{Animal Poetics : Marianne Moore, Ted Hughes and the Song of Songs}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/litthe/frx029}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/litthe/frx029}},
  volume       = {{31}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}