| Description |
ix, 317 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-304) and index. |
| Contents |
1. False Jews and Counterfeit Christians -- 2. Myths, Histories, Consequences -- 3. The Jewish Crime -- 4. "The Pound of Flesh" -- 5. The Hebrew Will Turn Christian -- 6. Race, Nation, or Alien? -- 7. Shakespeare and the Jew Bill of 1753. |
| Summary |
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. |
| Subject |
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Merchant of Venice.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Characters -- Jews.
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Shylock (Fictitious character)
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. (OCoLC)fst00029048
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Shylock (Fictitious character) (OCoLC)fst01117942
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Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare, William) (OCoLC)fst01356167
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Jews -- History -- 16th century.
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Jews -- History -- 17th century.
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Jews -- History -- 18th century.
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Judaism in literature.
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Jews in literature.
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Jews. (OCoLC)fst00983135
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Jews in literature. (OCoLC)fst00983388
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Judaism in literature. (OCoLC)fst00984461
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| Genre/Form |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
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| ISBN |
0231103441 (hardcover) |
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9780231103442 (hardcover) |
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9780231103459 (paperback) |
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023110345X (paperback) |
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