Language:
English
Year of publication:
1999
Titel der Quelle:
James Joyce Quarterly
Angaben zur Quelle:
36,4 (1999) 781-797
Keywords:
Joyce, James,
;
Antisemitism in literature
;
Antisemitism
;
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
Abstract:
Discusses the ways in which Leopold Bloom in Joyce's "Ulysses" is associated with the image of a vampire. This image may have been derived from Bram Stoker's antisemitic novel "Dracula". In regard to the economy, the Jew is seen as someone who "bleeds" the country dry. Bloom is perceived by others in the novel as a vampiric, homosexual predator; this popular turn-of-the-century stereotype of the Jew may well have been borrowed from Otto Weininger. The Jew-vampire is seen as a threat to the living. In a combination of folklore and Christian superstition, the vampire is related to the blood libel, which is referred to more than once in the novel. The Jew is also seen as a threat to the (Irish) race or nation, since his "bloodsucking" also suggests miscegenation. Concludes that, on the one hand, Joyce enforces a stereotype by casting Bloom as a vampire; on the other, he chooses a willfully ambiguous creature, which allows the Jew an atypically unfixed identity in Anglo-Jewish fiction.
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