A Time to Tell

Book excerpt: Using a variety of approaches from art criticism to structuralist analysis, this book draws out largely neglected narrative elements of Qoheleth's text, including the strategies of framing, autobiography and the 'use' of Solomon. In locating the self as the central concern of this narrative, Christianson shows that although Qoheleth passionately observes the world's transience, he desires that his own image be fixed and remembered. His story is thereby concerned with identity and the formation of character. In the guise of Solomon that concern is almost satirical and somewhat playful. Through the strategy of the frame narrative the complex relations of all such elements are brought into question, particularly the reader's relation to the framed material, as well as the relation of the framer to the one framed.