The Song of Songs is the only book of the Bible to privilege the voice of a woman, and its poetry of love and eroticism also bears witness to violence. How do the contemporary #MeToo movement and other movements of protest and accountability renew questions about women, gender, sex, and the problematic of the public at the heart of this ancient poetry? This edited volume seeks to reinvigorate feminist scholarship on the Song by exploring diverse contexts of reading, from Akkadian love lyrics, to Hildegard of Bingen, to Marc Chagall.

List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Introduction: The Song of Songs and Women’s Voices Elaine James and Simeon Chavel Part 1: The Song of Songs: Literary and Theoretical Approaches 1 The Song of Songs and #MeToo Critical Reading, Reparative Reading Elaine James 2 Sex in Public in the Song of Songs Rhiannon Graybill 3 The Speaker of the Song of Songs and Her Publics Simeon Chavel 4 Speaking of the Other Interest and Love in Song 5:2–8 Sarah Zhang Part 2: The Song of Songs in Historical Contexts 5 The Song, Cixous, and écriture féminine F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp 6 Female Voices in Akkadian Love Poetry Martti Nissinen 7 Recovering Women from the Scholars (Even from Me) Deborah Green 8 Singing the Song Anew Hildegard of Bingen as Interpreter of the Song of Songs Karl Shuve 9 Women’s Voices and the Cost of Going Public Song of Songs, Canonization and Safe Spaces Anna Marsh 10 The Gendering of Sexual Agency Case Studies from Song of Songs 8:5–14 and an Infamous Indian Trial Havilah Dharamraj 11 Space and Regulation in the Song of Songs and Contemporary Sexual Politics Yvonne Sherwood 12 Thinking with Pink Affective and Sensate Readings of Marc Chagall’s Song of Songs Fiona Black 13 How to Read the Work of ‘Great Artists Who Have Done Terrible Things’ Feminist and Womanist Biblical Scholarship and the #MeToo Debate on Cultural Texts of Terror Karen V. Guth Index