Inventing the Jew : antisemitic stereotypes in Romanian and other Central East-European cultures / Andrei Oișteanu ; foreword by Moshe Idel ; translated from Romanian by Mirela Adăscăliţei.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Oișteanu, Andrei.

Series:

Studies in antisemitism (Unnumbered)

Studies in antisemitism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Antisemitism--Romania.

Antisemitism.

Stereotypes (Social psychology).

Jews in popular culture.

Romania.

Antisemitism--Europe, Eastern.

Jews in popular culture--Europe, Eastern.

Stereotypes (Social psychology)--Europe, Eastern.

Europe, Eastern--Ethnic relations.

Europe, Eastern.

Eastern Europe.

Ethnic relations.

Physical Description:

xii, 468 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : Published by the University of Nebraska Press for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, [2009]

Summary:

"Inventing the Jew" follows the evolution of stereotypes of Jews from the level of traditional Romanian and other Central-East European cultures (their legends, fairy tales, ballads, carols, anecdotes, superstitions, and iconographic representations) to that of "high" cultures (including literature, essays, journalism, and sociopolitical writings), showing how motifs specific to "folkloric antisemitism" migrated to "intellectual antisemitism." This comparative perspective also highlights how the images of Jews have differed from that of other "strangers" such as Hungarians, Germans, Roma, Turks, Armenians, and Greeks. The gap between the conception of the "imaginary Jew" and the "real Jew" is a cultural distance that differs over time and place, here seen through the lens of cultural anthropology. Stereotypes of the "generic Jew" were not exclusively negative, and are described in five chapters depicting physical, occupational, moral and intellectual, mythical and magical, and religious portraits of "the Jew."

Contents:

The physical portrait

The occupational portrait

The moral and intellectual portrait

The mythical and magical portrait

The religious portrait.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780803220980

0803220987

OCLC:

268788890