Page - 28 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/02

28 | Angela Sue Sawyer www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/2, 21–33 Isaiah 51:1–52:6 The earth and gendered ecological aspects in Deutero-Isaiah are highlighted when the passage is read in conversation with Chapman’s song. Although this article compares two pieces of work to explore their environmental potential, their different formats need to be acknowledged. The lyrics of Tracy Chap- man’s song are primarily encountered along with its accompanying music, as is the intention for a pop song. The musical melody, rhythm, and style can generate emotional and physical engagement. If Isaiah 51 was originally com- posed as a song of Zion, it remains for us today only in poetic form.30 Modern composers have found Isaiah rich in musical potential, but for the purposes of this article my engagement with Isaiah 51 is primarily textual, related to its imagery and language.31 A hermeneutic of suspicion is conscious of Deutero-Isaiah’s anthropocen- tric bias and its theological approach to the earth, but I consider this text holds great ecofeminist potential when it is read with a hermeneutic of iden- tification and retrieval that makes the earth the subject.32 Discourse analysis reveals multiple voices in the oracles of Isaiah 51–52, possibly rhetorically representing different responses to the exile.33 Isaiah 51 also evidences dou- ble-voicing, to use a Bhaktinian term, such as in 51:23, where we see the voice of YHWH speaking in the voice of Zion’s tormentors.34 Interestingly, Zion her- self does not speak in these chapters (other than in Isa. 49:14); neither does the world in Chapman’s song (although she apparently cries). The prophet takes on the voice of YHWH, and these voices (as well as the narrator) coa- lesce throughout the passage. Sometimes YHWH’s voice is announced via the messenger formula (51:22; 52:3, 4). More often YHWH can be assumed to be speaking in the first person (51:1–2, 4–7, 12, 15), and YHWH is also addressed in the third person (51:3, 9–10, 17). 30 Isaiah’s complex composition history is beyond the scope of this paper. There are strong arguments for Deutero-Isaiah’s general dramatic form. See van der Woude 2005, 149–173. Music is imbedded in this passage via the reference to singing in Zion in Isa. 51:3 and a call for the redeemed to sing in Isa. 51:11. 31 John Sawyer explores Isaiah’s rich reception history including its appropriation in art, literature, and music. Sawyer, 1996, chap. 9. 32 Habel 2008, 4. 33 Tull Willey 1997, 3, 55, and chap. 2. 34 On double-voicing see Green 2000, 35–43, 47–53. This idea is central to Bakhtin’s literary criticism and has appeal for postcolonial approaches to biblical texts with notions of discourses of power and resistance.