The Phantom Jewess: Depictions of Jewish Women in Medieval English Literature
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This thesis examines depictions of Jewish females in medieval English literature (1200-1400). It is divided into three main parts: first, I examine the historical background leading to the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290. What roles did women play in society? What roles did Jews play? And, the intersection of the former, what roles did Jewish women hold? The second part involves close reading three exempla, and the third analyzing Chaucer's Prioress's Tale, where, surprisingly, there are no Jewish women literally present in the text. Generally speaking, medieval Jewish women lied at the cross section of two minorities, of two typically despised and mistreated groups in the developing Christian society: women and Jews. Women were seen as inferior beings in a heavily patriarchal society and Jews as devil's conspirators; my initial hypothesis, thus, was that Jewish women would be doubly scorned in the literature. In fact, my findings suggest a more nuanced portrayal of Jewesses. In exempla, they are portrayed in three main ways: as seductresses with the potential to convert (typically unlike Jewish males), as pitiful mothers, and as mediators between the Christian and Jewish communities. In The Prioress's Tale, the removal of the Jewess solidifies the position of Jews as uprooted beings and highlights the importance of the role of the Christian mother, who symbolizes the transition from old to new. This method of exclusion is effective in furthering the understanding of Jews as Other and thus in aiding the development of what I will call the Christian project. The overarching problematic arising both from exempla and from the work of Chaucer is that the stereotyped Jewess replaces the actual. The fictional Jewess becomes so embedded in the cultural fabric that it becomes nearly impossible to remove the spiteful notions concerning her persona without corrupting the entire system upon which the English Christian society is founded.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 2016 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Tur-Sinai Gozal, Luz |
|---|---|
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of English |
| Primary advisor | Treharne, Elaine |
| Advisor | Fonrobert, Charlotte |
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford University |
|---|---|
| Subject | Stanford University Department of English |
| Subject | Department of English |
| Subject | medieval |
| Subject | Jews |
| Subject | Jewess |
| Subject | medieval Jew |
| Subject | Chaucer |
| Subject | Prioress's Tale |
| Subject | exempla |
| Subject | women |
| Subject | absence |
| Subject | Other |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Tur-Sinai Gozal, Luz. (2016). The Phantom Jewess: Depictions of Jewish Women in Medieval English Literature. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/gt360ps0829
Collection
Stanford University, Department of English, Undergraduate Honors Theses
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- Contact
- luztg@stanford.edu
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