The Jew in the Text: Modernity and the Construction of Identity

What does the "Jew" stand for in modern culture? The conscious or unconscious, often hysterical repetition of myths and exaggerations, and the repertory of cliches, fantasies and phobias surrounding the stereotypes of the Jew and the Jewess, have meant that they are figures frequently represented both in the world of literature and art and in the industries of popular culture. Taking particular instances of the portrayal of the Jew in fiction, painting and prints, in film, caricature, pamphlets, medical journals, propaganda and architecture - in works by authors and artists as different as Dickens, Lautrec, Proust, Sargent, Joyce and Sartre - this book demonstrates how representations of the Jew are embodied in some of the best-known cultural products, situated "in the text" itself, not behind or beyond it. In specially-written essays by cultural historians and critics, including Julia Kristeva, Marshall Berman and Sander Gilman, this book explores the complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which Jewish identity was conceived and expressed in modern European and American culture.