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Overview"Oft-referenced and frequently set to music, Psalm 137 - which begins ""By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion"" - has become something of a cultural touchstone for music and Christianity across the Atlantic world. It has been a top single more than once in the 20th century, from Don McLean's haunting Anglo-American folk cover to Boney M's West Indian disco mix. In Song of Exile, David Stowe uses a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary approach that combines personal interviews, historical overview, and textual analysis to demonstrate the psalm's enduring place in popular culture.The line that begins Psalm 137 - one of the most lyrical of the Hebrew Bible - has been used since its genesis to evoke the grief and protest of exiled, displaced, or marginalized communities. Despite the psalm's popularity, little has been written about its reception during the more than 2,500 years since the Babylonian exile. Stowe locates its use in the American Revolution and the Civil Rights movement, and internationally by anti-colonial Jamaican Rastafari and immigrants from Ireland, Korea, and Cuba. He studies musical references ranging from the Melodians' Rivers of Babylon to the score in Kazakh film Tulpan. Stowe concludes by exploring the presence and absence in modern culture of the often-ignored final words: ""Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."" Usually excised from liturgy and forgotten by scholars, Stowe finds these words echoed in modern occurrences of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and more generally in the culture of vengeance that has existed in North America from the earliest conflicts with Native Americans.Based on numerous interviews with musicians, theologians, and writers, Stowe reconstructs the rich and varied reception history of this widely used, yet mysterious, text." Full Product DetailsAuthor: David W. Stowe (Professor of Religious Studies, Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State University)Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc Dimensions: Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.90cm Weight: 0.454kg ISBN: 9780190466831ISBN 10: 0190466839 Pages: 232 Publication Date: 19 May 2016 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Tertiary & Higher Education , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order  Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsReviewsDavid Stowe's focus is on subsequent, even contemporary use of the psalm, what we now call 'reception history.' Readers will be astonished by the rich inventory of belated uses of the psalm that Stowe has provided, mostly musical and in contexts of anguish. The psalm is now impressively contemporary with its pulses of pathos, resolve, and a will for vengeance. -Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary Breathtaking! David Stowe's dazzling gloss on Psalm 137 and its compelling transit across centuries of American and European cultural, religious, and musical life is a wondrous testament to learning, curiosity, and the power of enthralling narrative. Song of Exile uplifts the power of words as few books do, a haunting exercise of scholarship and moral imagination. - Jon Butler, Howard R Lamar Professor Emeritus of American Studies, History & Religious Studies, Yale University In this elegant account of Psalm 137 and its textual and musical reception, David Stowe marshals extraordinary erudition and interpretive imagination to fashion a probing inquiry into the perennial human experience of exile. Song of Exile invites readers to ponder history, memory, vengeance, forgiveness, and forgetting as classically expressed in the Psalmist's lyric 'By the Waters of Babylon' and movingly explored by Stowe's commentary on its afterlife from the biblical era to our own times. -Stephen A. Marini, Elisabeth Luce Moore Professor of Christian Studies, Wellesley College This fascinating study examines the surprisingly wide-ranging and persistent reception of Psalm 137 in popular culture throughout the world Anyone interested in the history of biblical interpretation and the Bible in popular culture will find this a rewarding read. --<em>The Bible Today</em> David Stowe's focus is on subsequent, even contemporary use of the psalm, what we now call 'reception history.' Readers will be astonished by the rich inventory of belated uses of the psalm that Stowe has provided, mostly musical and in contexts of anguish. The psalm is now impressively contemporary with its pulses of pathos, resolve, and a will for vengeance. -Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary Breathtaking! David Stowe's dazzling gloss on Psalm 137 and its compelling transit across centuries of American and European cultural, religious, and musical life is a wondrous testament to learning, curiosity, and the power of enthralling narrative. <em>Song of Exile</em> uplifts the power of words as few books do, a haunting exercise of scholarship and moral imagination. - Jon Butler, Howard R Lamar Professor Emeritus of American Studies, History & Religious Studies, Yale University In this elegant account of Psalm 137 and its textual and musical reception, David Stowe marshals extraordinary erudition and interpretive imagination to fashion a probing inquiry into the perennial human experience of exile. <em>Song of Exile</em> invites readers to ponder history, memory, vengeance, forgiveness, and forgetting as classically expressed in the Psalmist's lyric 'By the Waters of Babylon' and movingly explored by Stowe's commentary on its afterlife from the biblical era to our own times. -Stephen A. Marini, Elisabeth Luce Moore Professor of Christian Studies, Wellesley College Stowe's historical approach to Psalm 137, 'By the rivers of Babylon/ There we sat down/ And there we wept/ When we remembered Zion' follows a lyrical trajectory from its original context through various political movements such as the U.S. Revolutionary War and the civil rights movement. -<em>Library</em> <em>Journal</em> A gem of lyrical prose and expansive erudition, <em>Song of Exile</em> lays out a comprehensive vision of the reception of Psalm 137. -<em>Reading Religion</em> Stowe's book maps the experience of the psalm to the experience of Israel and, in turn, to the experience of musicians, activists, preachers, and theologians throughout the centuries. - <em>Christanity Today</em> Author InformationDavid W. Stowe teaches English and Religious Studies at Michigan State University, where he is interim chair of the English Department. His most recent book is No Sympathy for the Devil: Christian Pop Music and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism. His previous book, How Sweet the Sound: Music in the Spiritual Lives of Americans, won the Deems Taylor Award from ASCAP. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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