Table of Contents

Part One: History
1) Mapping History
2) Comprehending Migration
3) Babylonia
4) In Nebuchudnezzar's Court
5) By the Kebar
6) People of the Land
7) Jeremiah
8) Lamentations
9) Strange Lands
10) Existential Exile
11) Rivers of Watertown
12) Melodious Rivers

Part Two: Memory
13) New World Babylon
14) American Jeremiah
15) Africa as New Israel
16) Echoes of Roland Hayes
17) Footnotes to C.L. Franklin
18) Moses and Jeremiah
19) Moses and Jeremiah
20) Forcing Memory
21) Wood Street

Part Three: Forgetting
22) Jedwabne
23) Revisiting a Vanished World
24) Blaming Victims
25) Thirsting for Vengeance
26) New World Captivity
27) Better Angels
28) Holocaust Songs
29) Sepulchral Memory
30) After Exile

Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

David 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.

Reviews

"Stowe's study of Psalm 137 is one of the best examples of reception history written for nonspecialists, a riveting investigation that takes the reader into surprising places of American culture and beyond [I]t proves to be nothing short of eye opening."--William P. Brown, Interpretation
"[A] very attractive and diverting read...Stowe succeeds in shedding light on a very attractive and essential text of the Bible..."--The Expository Times
"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."--The Bible Today
"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. 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
"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."--Library Journal
"A gem of lyrical prose and expansive erudition, Song of Exile lays out a comprehensive vision of the reception of Psalm 137."--Reading Religion
"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."--Christanity Today