Shakespeare and the Jews

by James Shapiro

Overview

First published in 1996, James Shapiro's pathbreaking analysis of the portrayal of Jews in Elizabethan England challenged readers to recognize the significance of Jewish questions in Shakespeare's day. From accounts of Christians masquerading as Jews to fantasies of settling foreign Jews in Ireland, Shapiro's work delves deeply into the cultural insecurities of Elizabethans while illuminating Shakespeare's portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. In a new preface, Shapiro reflects upon what he has learned about intolerance since the first publication of Shakespeare and the Jews.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231541879
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	03/08/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

James Shapiro is the Larry Miller Professor of English at Columbia University and a governor of the Folger Shakespeare Library. He is the author of several books, including The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 (2015) and 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005).

Table of Contents

Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition
Acknowledgments
A Note on Texts
Introduction
1. False Jews and Counterfeit Christians
2. Myths, Histories, Consequences
3. The Jewish Crime
4. "The Pound of Flesh"
5. The Hebrew Will Turn Christian
6. Race, Nation, or Alien?
7. Shakespeare and the Jew Bill of 1753
Conclusion
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

What Shapiro shows convincingly is how deeply Shakespeare's play dug into the fantasies, anxieties and pleasures of its audience.

New York Times Book Review

Shapiro not only explodes the myth of the absent Jew but, more significantly, explores how literature conveys such notions.

Tikkun

[Shapiro] forces us to recognize the racist underside of 'Enlightenment' politics and Shakespeare's part in the creation of an insular and xenophobic Englishness.

Comparative Drama - Grace Tiffany

A valuable approach to one of Shakespeare's most challenging and elusive masterpieces.

Chicago Tribune

An outstanding example of how a literary figure can illuminate both our cultural past and our present.

Moment

Shapiro’s extensive research and close attention to the spirit of the people in Shakespeare and the Jews grants the reader rare insights into the profound effects of Judaism on Elizabethan culture.

European Legacy

A must-read: it raises fundamental questions about literature in this era of violent bigotry and political correctness.

College English - Marilyn L. Williamson

Our understanding of 'Englishness' is so established by now that it is necessary to read a fine cultural historian like Shapiro to understand how fluid it once was.

|Los Angeles Times

I plan to teach this book alongside The Merchant of Venice the next chance I get.

Renaissance Quarterly - Andrea Solomon

A repository of information about a great many matters long in need of the kind of intelligent analysis that Shapiro gives them.

New York Review of Books

James Shapiro couples his extensive research with insightful interpretations and ideas, creating an impressive study that will aid scholars of history, literature, and Judaism for decades to come.

The Sixteenth Century Journal - Eric Sterling

Shapiro is not concerned merely with Jewish figures in Shakespeare's plays; rather, his book grapples with the much vaster questions of Jewishness and Shakespearean culture.

Comparative Literature - Richard Halpern

Shapiro provides a shocking overview of Elizabethan England's anti-Semitism, and shows how Shylock was shaped by that Christian nation's fears; Shakespeare's Jew conformed all too closely to his audience's expectations.

New Yorker - Hilton Als

An outstanding example of how a literary figure can illuminate both our cultural past and our present.

MOMENT

Our understanding of 'Englishness' is so established by now that it is necessary to read a fine cultural historian like Shapiro to understand how fluid it once was.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

A valuable approach to one of Shakespeare's most challenging and elusive masterpieces.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Shapiro not only explodes the myth of the absent Jew but, more significantly, explores how literature conveys such notions.

TIKKUN

A repository of information about a great many matters long in need of the kind of intelligent analysis that Shapiro gives them.

NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

Shapiro has written a brilliant, incisive cultural history.

Shakespeare Newsletter - Glenn Speer