Ruler, Lover, Sage and Sceptic: Receptions of King Solomon

The proposed research focuses on the image of King Solomon: the biblical portrait and its reception in literature and music. A comprehensive image of Solomon throughout the Bible is still a desideratum of biblical studies. Another innovative aspect is music: texts as part of music, like librettos and lyrics, have hardly come into the focus of biblical reception up to now. The project will show how the biblical narrative in 1 Kings 111 unfolds as an ongoing process of reading and rewriting. This development does not end with the completion of the biblical canon. Instead, it is continued in the religious communities, their studies and teaching, but also in the arts. While demonstrating how Solomon is created and recreated in literature and music, we also want to show that this creative process has two sides: It is not only the reception, adaptation and reinterpretation of a biblical figure but at the same time a way to present a current situation from a specific perspective, namely Solomons. The image of the biblical king acts as a lens through which the respective present is shown. This project means to be a follow-up study of the FWF-project Ruler, Lover, Sage and Sceptic: Receptions of King Solomon (P 25473-G15, 1.12.2013-30.11.2016), which focused on the biblical texts and their receptions in the era of Baroque (appr. 1600-1750) and modern times (appr. 1900- 2016). Now we will look at the years 1750-1900, a period of radical change especially regarding the arts; and we will trace the reception of Solomon in early modern times (1490-1600) that already prepared the Baroque era. Together with the previous study, this project will - for the first time - be able to give a detailed insight into the reception history of Solomon in literature and music from the 16th to the 21st century.

No additional funding sources recorded.