by J J Cohen
Miriamne Ara Krummel's
Crafting Jewishness in Medieval England is soon to be published in the New Middle Ages series. Some advance praise:
“Working at the intersection of medieval, postcolonial, and Judaic studies, Krummel has created a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary work of scholarship that re-evaluates how anti-Judaism works. Stressing the absence of the Jews even when physically present (transformed into a figure, a symbol, a deicidal monster), the book traces Jewish representation by Christians and (powerfully) by Jews living amongst Christians. Even when expelled from the island in 1290, the Jews continued to haunt, so integral were they to medieval Christian identities. Crafting Jewishness in Medieval England is a carefully researched, disquieting, vigorously argued, and profound book."--Jeffrey J. Cohen, Professor of English and Director of the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute, George Washington University
"In Crafting Jewishness in Medieval England, Krummel explores the varied and arresting medieval pre-histories of modern racism and antisemitism. Krummel's lively, eloquent and wide-ranging exploration of the Jews' 'virtual presence' in medieval English culture asks timely and challenging questions about religious violence and group identity. Krummel's book not only helps us to think about the vanished English Jews, expelled in 1290, but also suggests provocative and innovative ways of recovering and interpreting the haunting, multiple presences the Jews continued to play in the English, Christian imagination."--Anthony Bale, Reader in Medieval Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London
Full details
here. Congratulations, Miriamne!
I am *so* looking forward to this... I spent today in the thirteenth century, intellectually speaking, and it is, frankly, a frightening place for an Anglo-Saxonist to go. (I'm still trying to figure out why they call my period the dark ages.) Particularly fascinating were Jeremy Cohen's now older book on the mendicant orders' anti-Semitic agitation, which ensured that I will never look at Franciscanism the same way again, and Colum Hourihane's new, enormous, yet accessible book on medieval artistic representations of Pontius Pilate.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jeffrey, for making a space for the book on your blog. It's due to come out tomorrow and a thanks are in order. Irina, I hope what you look forward to becomes a real.
ReplyDeleteMiriamne