Is Shylock Jewish?: Citing Scripture and the Moral Agency of Shakespeare's Jews

Sara Coodin

ISBN 10: 1474418384 / ISBN 13: 9781474418386

Published by Edinburgh University Press, 2017

About this Item

New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days.

Seller Inventory # B9781474418386

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Is Shylock Jewish?: Citing Scripture and the Moral Agency of Shakespeare's Jews
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1474418384
• ISBN 13: 9781474418386
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 555 grams

About this title

Synopsis

A detailed exploration of the significance of Hebrew Biblical stories in The Merchant of Venice
What happens when we consider Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice as a play with ‘real’ Jewish characters who are not mere ciphers for anti-Semitic Elizabethan stereotypes? Is Shylock Jewish studies Shakespeare’s extensive use of stories from the Hebrew Bible in The Merchant of Venice, and argues that Shylock and his daughter Jessica draw on recognizably Jewish ways of engaging with those narratives throughout the play. By examining the legacy of Jewish exegesis and cultural lore surrounding these biblical episodes, this book traces the complexity and richness of Merchant’s Jewish aspect, spanning encounters with Jews and the Hebrew Bible in the early modern world as well as modern adaptations of Shakespeare’s play on the Yiddish stage.
Key Features
Analyses alternative contexts for the moral agency of Jewish characters in The Merchant of VeniceProvides an innovative study of Renaissance Christian Hebraism in England and English perceptions of Jews and Jewishness in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuriesDiscusses important nineteenth- and twentieth-century Yiddish-language adaptations of The Merchant of VeniceMakes a provocative and original argument about the importance of Judaic biblical exegesis to the long afterlife of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

About the Author

Sara Coodin is assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches Renaissance literature and Shakespearean Drama. Raised and educated in Montréal, Québec, she learned Yiddish, Hebrew, and French at an early age, and came to the study of Shakespeare somewhat later during her graduate studies at McGill University. Her research focuses on questions of moral agency in Shakespeare and the multi-vocality of Shakespeare’s plays, including Shakespeare’s adaptation into other languages.