Jews in the early modern English imagination
Subtitle: a scattered nation
By: Eva Johanna Holmberg
Series: Transculturalisms, 1400-1700
Publisher: Ashgate
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, VT
Language: eng
Number of pages: 180
ISBN-13: 9781409411918; 9781409411925
Subjects: Jews in literature; English literature; Travelers' writings, English; History and criticism
Description: "Based on travel writings, religious history and popular literature, Jews in the Early Modern English Imagination explores the encounter between English travellers and the Jews. While literary and religious traditions created an image of Jews as untrustworthy, even sinister, travellers came to know them in their many and diverse communities with rich traditions and intriguing life-styles. The Jew of the imagination encountered the Jew of town and village, in southern Europe, North Africa and the Levant. Coming from an England riven by religious disputes and often by political unrest, travellers brought their own questions about identity, national character, religious belief and the quality of human relations to their encounter with 'the scattered nation'. Dr Holmberg does justice to the richness of the subject by using a wide range of historical approaches and an impressive array of sources."--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Locating the Jews. Maps of captivity, dispersion and wandering; title: In the ghetto, on the mountain top; title: Inside the synagogue; title: Observing the religion of the Jews. Sacred texts, cursed fables; title: Worship and wild gestures; title: Circumcision; title: Domestic duties, devotions, and ceremonies; title: Framing Jewish bodies and souls. Bodies distinctively apparelled; title: Looks, shapes and sizes; title: A Jew within; title: "Mercuriall wits" and "violent passions."