Language:
German
Year of publication:
2001
Titel der Quelle:
Shakespeare Jahrbuch
Angaben zur Quelle:
137 (2001) 11-22
Keywords:
Shakespeare, William,
;
Pressler, Mirjam.
;
Jews History 1500-1800
;
Jews
;
Antisemitism in literature
Abstract:
A lecture delivered at the conclusion of the Shakespeare-Tage in Bochum, April 2000. Asserts that Shakespeare's portrayal of Shylock has been more baneful in its antisemitic influence than even the images of ritual murder in the churches. Just because Shylock is a differentiated human being, he leaves a deeper impression than if he were pure stereotype. Accuses Shakespeare of antisemitism: he allows Portia and the other Venetian aristocrats to humiliate Shylock and trample on his rights; he doesn't bother to investigate the social circumstances, the restrictions, and the insecurity that made Shylock what he was; he caters to the prejudices of the masses, which Shakespeare himself must have been too intelligent to share. Describes her own research on the life of the Jews in the 16th-century Venetian ghetto, which serves as background to her novel "Shylocks Tochter" (1999) in which she tries to rehabilitate Shylock and his relationship to Jessica.
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