| Summary: | Jean-Marie Auwers asks whether the Song of Songs was intended to be heard or watched, rather than merely to be read. In order to answer this question, Auwers studies in detail who are the speakers in the Song, who are the addressees, and where the interlocutors find themselves at the time of the action. Even though the Song of Songs consists entirely of dialogues and monologues, it is often difficult to establish who exactly is speaking in a particular verse, as the interlocutors are not explicitly marked in the text. For this reason, Auwers consults the stage directions found in the Greek manuscripts of the Song. These manuscripts differ greatly, however, in the number of (groups of) participants they recognize in the text, ranging from two in the Alexandrinus to no less than eight in the Sinaiticus, which leaves Auwers with the task of determining who exactly is speaking in the Song, besides the female and male protagonist of the book. There is little doubt that the daughters of Jerusalem take the floor in 5,9 and in 6,1, Auwers continues, but there are a few other cases in which it is not particularly clear who is speaking (1,8.11; 2,15; 3,6; 5,1.9; 7,1; 8,8-9). After careful examination of all these cases, Auwers comes to the conclusion that there is no need to identify other speakers than the ones mentioned above, and in particular that there is no group of men among the Song’s interlocutors. Similarly, he concludes that no other addressees are intended in the Song of Songs then the aforementioned female and male protagonists and the daughters of Jerusalem. As far as the locations in the book are concerned, they are not described as the locations in which the interlocutors find themselves at the time of speaking. Rather, the readers are invited to imagine these locations as the setting in which the action described by the protagonists takes place. Moreover, the woman seems to be present throughout the book, except perhaps in 7,1; 3,6-11 and 6,8-10. All these findings lead Auwers to conclude that the Song of Songs was a text to be performed by two protagonists, in the presence of a choir, which remained silent for most of the time, but which – as first listeners – allowed the audience to listen in on the very intimate conversation between two lovers.
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