Shylock and the Jewish Question

232 Pages·1997·8.433 MB·English

by  Martin D. Yaffe

Much attention has been paid to the place
of Shylock in the history of anti-Semitism.
Most scholars have agreed with Harold
Bloom that Shakespeare’s famous villain is
drawn with a “murderous anti-Semitism”
and that Shakespeare uncritically mirrors
the rife anti-Semitism of his times. While
others see only gross caricature in The
Merchant of Venice, however, Martin Yaffe
finds a subtle analysis of the Jew’s place in a
largely Christian society.
In Shylock and the Jewish Question, Yaffe
challenges the widespread assumption that
Shakespeare is, in the final analysis, un¬
friendly to Jews. Emphasizing that 77le
Merchant of Venice is a work of political
philosophy as well as literature, Yaffe raises
the intriguing possibility that Shakespeare
presents Shylock not as a typical Jew, but as
a bad one. He finds that Shakespeare’s
consideration of Judaism in The Merchant
of Venice provides an important contrast to
Marlowe’s virulent The Jew of Malta. In
many ways, he argues, Shakespeare’s play is
even more accepting than Francis Bacon’s
notably inclusive New Atlantis or the
Jewish philosopher Benedict Spinoza’s
argument for tolerance in the Theolofjico-
Political Treatise.
Although the book focuses on the Jewish
question, it has larger implications for our
thinking in a number of areas: the rise of
liberal democracy, the development of
religious toleration, the relation of church
and state, and the interrelation of politics,
economics, and religion—in short, a whole
range of issues basic to the conception of
modernity.
Martin D. Yaffe is associate professor in
the Department of Philosophy and Reli¬
gion Studies at University of North Texas
in Denton.
Johns Hopkins Jewish Studies
Sander Gilman and Steven T. Katz
SERIES EDITORS

Shy lock and the Jewish Question
Johns Hopkins Jewish Studies
Sander Gilman and Steven T. Katz
Series Editors
Shylock
and the
Jewish Question
Martin D. Yaffe
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore & London
This book has been brought to publication with the generous
assistance of Dr. Robert Fine and Nina Cortell and family,
and of Norman and Carol Miller and family.
© 1997 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 1997
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free recycled paper
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The Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4319
The Johns Hopkins Press Ltd., London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data will be found
at the end of this book.
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-8018-5648-5
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