Language:
German
Year of publication:
2011
Titel der Quelle:
Chilufim; Zeitschrift für jüdische Kulturgeschichte
Angaben zur Quelle:
10 (2011) 1-42
Keywords:
Rasser, Johann,
;
Christianity and antisemitism History 16th century
;
Austrian drama 16th century
;
Jews in literature
;
Antisemitism in literature
;
Antisemitism
;
Ensisheim (France)
Abstract:
Discusses Alsatian vicar Johann Rasser's "Comoedia; vom König, der seinem Sohn Hochzeit machte" (1575), which was intended for performance by and for schoolchildren. The play confronted the theme of Judaism through the parable of the wicked wine-growers and a royal wedding feast, and has generally been viewed as clearly anti-Jewish. Contends that, although it portrays the Jews as deicides, as ungrateful, stubborn, deaf, and therefore exiled, the play's main goal is not to chastise the Jews but to educate Christian children to fear God and to mend their ways. The biblical Jews are presented as a negative example, but the play's narrator and explicator added that contemporary Christians in German-speaking parts of the Kaiserreich were no better than the Jews. The anti-Jewish stereotypes, therefore, apply also to the "new" Jews, i.e. Christians. Argues that Rasser introduced anti-Judaism as a theme partly to gain favors from the Archduke on whose financial support Rasser's school in Ensisheim depended. The Jews had been expelled from then-Austrian Alsace a year earlier, in 1574.
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