The Jewess in English literature: A mediating presence.
Item
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Title
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The Jewess in English literature: A mediating presence.
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Identifier
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AAI8820913
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identifier
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8820913
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Creator
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Witkin, Mildred Starr.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Lillian Feder
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English
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Abstract
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The history of the Jewess in English literature starts with the Old Testament, a repository of models for the English Jewess. Available there is a panorama of archetypical Hebrew women, all beautiful, who portray a range of traits; they are noble, courageous, vulnerable, manipulative, erotic, and dangerous. Their outstanding and most significant quality for the Jewesses who follow them, however, is their sexuality, designed as intrinsic to their identity. The English Jewess of the medieval world is associated with an odious religion tainted with deicide, with ritual murder, and with an evil father who encourages her destruction as a devoted martyr. In the new awareness of the human-centered world of the English Renaissance, the Jewess emerges as both a biblical and secular character reflecting Renaissance themes; the greatest of the Elizabethan dramatists, Marlowe and Shakespeare, use the Jewess to advance themes that project the conflict between old and new ideas. Whether she is victim, as Marlowe draws her, or rebel, according to Shakespeare, the Jewess is featured as the object of religious conversion, an essential element of her portrait. The Jewess of modern times, located in the English novel, reflects social, political, economic, and cultural change in England's history and literary fashions. Incorporating new historical influences, the portrayals of Jewesses in the English novel continue to evoke elements of older traditions as revealed in plot, character, and theme. From Tobias Smollett to James Joyce, the characters of Jewesses provide a literary tradition that is frequently self-conscious, notably when novelists compare their Jewesses to earlier portraits. Foremost, the tradition of the Jewess is evident in the repeated motif of the rich Jew's beautiful daughter which supplies the most pervasive elements for the Jewess's portrait and the most basic condition for her as a mediating presence between Jew and Christian. Selected as the link to Christian piety, the Jewess becomes the agent of redemption for Christian writers. Even in the portraits drawn by Anglo-Jewish novelists, the Jewess perpetuates her role as redeemer, but as one who seeks to reclaim Jewish identity.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
