Language:
English
Year of publication:
1997
Titel der Quelle:
Jewish Affairs
Angaben zur Quelle:
52,3 (1997) 35-43
Keywords:
Edgeworth, Maria,
;
Jewish literature History and criticism
;
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
Abstract:
Having been reprimanded by one of her readers for the stereotypical and unjust representation of Jews in her novels, Maria Edgeworth published the novel "Harrington" in 1816, in which she tried to portray Jews sympathetically. However, her depiction of Jewish characters is framed by issues of social, economic, and national incorporation and exclusion. The novel reflects the public debates around the Jewish Naturalisation Bill of 1753. Deploring religious prejudice and agreeing with the usefulness of Jewish admittance to Britain, she, as well as many of her contemporaries, regarded Jews as aliens and rejected their appropriation into the English nation. As a proto-feminist, Edgeworth positively contrasts "feminine" irrational allegiance to the nation (which rejects Jews as co-nationals) with the "masculine" approach to the nation as a political site for the advancement of legal and economic rationality.
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