Monsters and monstrosity in Jewish history : from the Middle Ages to modernity

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Imprint:

London ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic 2019 and ©2019

Subject:

Jews - Europe - History - 70-1789
Jews - Europe - History - 1789-1945
Monsters - Europe - Folklore
Monsters in literature

Contributor:

Idelson-Shein, Iris, editor
Wiese, Christian, editor

ISBN:

9781350052147 and 1350052140

Description:

xiv, 269 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Bibliographic Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [265]-266) and index

Contents:

Introduction. Writing a History of Horror, or What Happens When Monsters Stare Back / Iris Idelson-Shein -- Part One. The Monster Without: Monsters in Jewish-Christian Intercultural Discourse -- Chapter 1. Enge unpathas uncuð gelad: The Long Walk to Freedom / Miriamne Ara Krummel and Asa Simon Mittman -- Chapter 2. Monsters, Demons, and Jews in the Painting of Hieronymus Bosch / Debra Higgs-Strickland -- Notes -- Chapter 3. Bestial Bodies on the Jewish Margins: Race, Ethnicity, and Otherness in Medieval Manuscripts Illuminated for Jews / Marc Michael Epstein -- Chapter 4. Demonic Entanglements: Matted Hair in Medieval and Early Modern, Western, and Eastern Ashkenaz / Franc̦ois Guesnet-- Chapter 5. A Jewish Frankenstein: Making Monsters in Modernist German Grotesques / Joela Jacobs -- Chapter 6. From Sexual Enlightenment to Racial Antisemitism: Gender, Sex, and Jewishness in Weimar Cinema's Monsters / Cathy S. Gelbin -- Chapter 7. Monsters in the Testimonies of Holocaust Survivors / Kobi Kabalek -- Part Two. The Monster Within: Monsters in Jewish Intracommunal Discourse -- Chapter 8. Unearthing the "Children of Cain": Between Humans, Animals, and Demons in Medieval Jewish Culture / David I. Shyovitz -- Chapter 9. Sexuality and Communal Space in Stories about the Marriage of Men and She-Demons / David Rotman -- Chapter 10: The Raging Rabbi: Aggression and Agency in an Early Modern Yiddish Werewolf Tale (Mayse-bukh 1602) / Astrik Lembke -- Chapter 11. Out of the Mouths of Babes and Sucklings / David B. Ruderman -- Chapter 12. Rabbinic Monsters: The World of Wonder and Rabbinic Culture at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century / Maoz Kahana -- Chapter 13. "Der Volf" or the Jew as Out(side of the)law / Jay Geller

Summary:

This is the first study of monstrosity in Jewish history from the Middle Ages to modernity. Drawing on Jewish history, literary studies, folklore, art history and the history of science, it examines both the historical depiction of Jews as monsters and the creative use of monstrous beings in Jewish culture. Jews have occupied a liminal position within European society and culture, being deeply immersed yet outsiders to it. For this reason, they were perceived in terms of otherness and were often represented as monstrous beings. However, at the same time, European Jews invoked, with tantalizing ubiquity, images of magical, terrifying and hybrid beings in their texts, art and folktales. These images were used by Jewish authors and artists to push back against their own identification as monstrous or diabolical and to tackle concerns about religious persecution, assimilation and acculturation, gender and sexuality, science and technology and the rise of antisemitism. Bringing together an impressive cast of contributors from around the world, this fascinating volume is an invaluable resource for academics, postgraduates and advanced undergraduates interested in Jewish studies, as well as the history of monsters

Collection:

BGC Monograph Stacks

Call Number:

DS135.E8 M667 2019

Available

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