Language:
English
Year of publication:
2004
Titel der Quelle:
Hispanic Review
Angaben zur Quelle:
72,3 (2004) 357-374
Keywords:
Vega, Lope de,
;
Antisemitism History 1500-1800
;
Circumcision Religious aspects
;
Christianity
;
Berit milah in literature
Abstract:
Discusses the ambiguity of the Spanish "purity of blood" attitude of 17th-century dramatists, who both vilify Jews and also embrace them as part of Spanish history, from a Lacanian psychoanalytic point of view. Stresses the ambiguous perspectives on circumcision, in the context of which Spaniards like Vega were uncertain who was or was not a Jew. Out of such blood insecurity, circumcision was viewed positively when it referred symbolically to Jesus and to Spanish males, but had a negative valence when it referred to Jews. In the latter case it was associated with the feminizing male menstruation and blood impurity, as seen in Vega's play and in the view propagated by two contemporary Spanish physicians.
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