Shakespeare and the Jews - Hardcover

Shapiro, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231103441 ISBN 13: 9780231103442

Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr, 1995

Synopsis

Going against the grain of the dominant scholarship on the period, which generally ignores the impact of Jewish questions in early modern England, James Shapiro shows how Elizabethans imagined Jews to be utterly different from themselves - in religion, race, nationality, and even sexuality. From strange cases of Christians masquerading as Jews to bizarre proposals to settle foreign Jews in Ireland, Shakespeare and the Jews looks into the crisis of cultural identity in that post-Reformation world.
Even as Shakespeare has come to embody Englishness itself, The Merchant of Venice, with its exploration of Jewish criminality, conversion, race, alien status, and national identity, now stands at the crossroads of cultural exclusion and cultural longing. In this formidably researched new book, Shapiro sheds fascinating light on the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries and opens new questions about culture and identity in Elizabethan England.

About this title

Review

The Merchant of Venice has long been a problem play for lovers of Shakespeare. How could the greatest playwright in English, renowned for his depth of humanity, create a crude anti-Semitic stereotype like Shylock? The problem has been approached in diverse ways, from branding Shakespeare as an anti-Semite to interpreting his play as a nuanced depiction of Elizabethan anti-Semitism. James Shapiro, a professor of English at Columbia University, sets the problem within a wider field by examining the historical, social, and cultural status of the Jews in Shakespeare's England. He reveals that the Elizabethan view of the Jews was loaded with a complex symbolism that resonates throughout this play.

Book Description

James Shapiro's unvarnished look at how Jews were portrayed in Elizabethan England challenged scholars to recognize the significance of Jewish questions in Shakespeare's day. From accounts of Christians masquerading as Jews to fantasies of settling foreign Jews in Ireland, Shapiro's work delves deeply into the cultural insecurities of Elizabethans while illuminating Shakespeare's portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. In a new preface, Shapiro reflects upon what he failed to understand about intolerance when the book was first published.

Edition details

• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0231103441
• ISBN 13: 9780231103442
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320