Matthew Biberman
Ashgate
Hardback
274
2004
This study argues that modern antisemitism is a by-product of tensions between received Classical conceptions of masculinity and Christianity's strident critique of that ideal. Utilizing works by Shakespeare Milton Marlowe and others Biberman illustrates how antisemitism develops as a way to stigmatize hypermasculine behavior thus facilitating the transformation of the culture's gender ideal from knight to businessman. Subsequently the function of antisemitism changes becoming instead the mark of effeminate behavior. Consequently the central antisemitic image changes from Jew-Devil to Jew-Sissy. Biberman traces this shift's repercussions both in Renaissance culture and what follows it. He also contends that as a result of this linkage between Jewishness and the limits of masculine behavior the image of the Jewish woman remains especially unstable. In concluding Biberman argues that the Gothic resurrects the Jew-Devil (bequeathing it to the Nazis) and that the horror genre is often a rewriting of Renaissance discourse about Jews.
Ashgate
Hardback
274
2004
This study argues that modern antisemitism is a by-product of tensions between received Classical conceptions of masculinity and Christianity's strident critique of that ideal. Utilizing works by Shakespeare Milton Marlowe and others Biberman illustrates how antisemitism develops as a way to stigmatize hypermasculine behavior thus facilitating the transformation of the culture's gender ideal from knight to businessman. Subsequently the function of antisemitism changes becoming instead the mark of effeminate behavior. Consequently the central antisemitic image changes from Jew-Devil to Jew-Sissy. Biberman traces this shift's repercussions both in Renaissance culture and what follows it. He also contends that as a result of this linkage between Jewishness and the limits of masculine behavior the image of the Jewish woman remains especially unstable. In concluding Biberman argues that the Gothic resurrects the Jew-Devil (bequeathing it to the Nazis) and that the horror genre is often a rewriting of Renaissance discourse about Jews.