ABSTRACT
Stressing the role of the narrative voice as a tool for expressing selfhood in autobiographical material leads to a Qoheletic self wholly created by language. In this process readers become centres of conscious attention and thus 'I's who approach the ancient autobiographer as a conversation partner, both 'you' and 'he'. Readerly selves sit together with Qohelet in sameness – or stand apart in otherness. Postcolonial views, which are in excess of an imperialist account, are the other that vitally contribute to a fuller collection of Qoheletic selves. Like Bjorklund, Salyer suggests that first person discourse has a particular social function. It is between these two poles that the autobiographical voice moves. The reader takes the part of Qohelet, the critic of society and its religious traditions. But s/he also takes the part of the rhetorical response of the assembly to that critical voice, found in Ecclesiastes 12.
