Gender and Jewish Difference from Paul to Shakespeare

Author / Editor
Lampert, Lisa.

Title
Gender and Jewish Difference from Paul to Shakespeare

Published
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Physical Description
277 pp.

Series
The Middle Ages Series

Description
Lampert decenters Christianity and releases the study of Jews and Judaism from a "restricted economy of particularism." She shows how representations of Jews go beyond representations of the "Other" in a range of English texts by revealing fundamental understandings of reading, interpretation, and identity that form the basis of these texts.
In PrT, the Virgin Mary's body symbolizes the contact between Judaism and Christianity, representing the limits of Christian ideology and identity. In the broader context of CT, PrT reacts directly to ShT, in which chaos stems from unspoken sins of usury. SNT draws upon the dichotomies between blindness and sight, used in PrT to invoke an opposition "to Jewish perfidy" (13). Lampert also considers MLT, Th-MelL, ParsT, and Ret. The representation of Jews shapes CT because what it means to be Christian is negotiated in relationship to Jews and Judaism.

Chaucer Subjects
Prioress and Her Tale.
Shipman and His Tale.
Second Nun and Her Tale.
Man of Law and His Tale.
Canterbury Tales--General.