The “Jew in the Latrine”: Exploring the Transmission of an Early German Anti-Jewish Narrative

IF 0.1 Q3 HISTORY
William C. Mcdonald
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

An anti-Jewish short narrative, here labelled the “Jew in the Latrine,” was very popular in the Middle Ages and early modern period, appearing in a range of genres in Latin and the vernacular. A Jew falls into a sewer on the Sabbath day and, fearing desecration, neither extracts himself nor permits his extraction from the muck. Vexed over Jewish Sabbath prohibitions, a Christian authority compels the Jew also to remain in the sewer over the Christian Sabbath. This anecdote was intended both to reinforce the trope identifying Jews with filth and excrement, and to ridicule the place of the Law within Judaism itself. Exemplars of the “Jew in the Latrine” within the German cultural region, though bountiful, are researched sketchily. This paper aims to provide the first systematic assessment of these. Important findings are the crucial role played in the transmission of the tale by the circle of the Reformer Philip Melanchthon, and the omnipresence of the city of Magdeburg and the intervention of its archbishops in adjudicating the case of the “Jew in the Latrine.”
“拉特林中的犹太人”:德国早期反犹太叙事的传播探索
一个反犹太人的短篇故事,在这里被称为“厕所里的犹太人”,在中世纪和近代早期非常流行,出现在拉丁语和方言的一系列体裁中。一个犹太人在安息日掉进了下水道,由于害怕被亵渎,他既不把自己拉出来,也不允许自己从淤泥中拉出来。基督教权威对犹太人的安息日禁令感到烦恼,迫使犹太人在基督教安息日也呆在下水道里。这则轶事意在强化将犹太人与污秽和粪便等同起来的比喻,并嘲笑律法在犹太教中的地位。在德国文化区域内,“厕所里的犹太人”的例子虽然很多,但研究得很粗略。本文旨在对这些问题进行首次系统评估。重要的发现是,在这个故事的传播过程中,改革家菲利普·梅兰希顿(Philip Melanchthon)的圈子发挥了至关重要的作用,马格德堡市(Magdeburg)无处不在,该市的大主教们也介入了“厕所里的犹太人”一案的裁决。
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来源期刊
Medieval Encounters
Medieval Encounters Arts and Humanities-Religious Studies
CiteScore
0.50
自引率
0.00%
发文量
32
期刊介绍: Medieval Encounters promotes discussion and dialogue accross cultural, linguistic and disciplinary boundaries on the interactions of Jewish, Christian and Muslim cultures during the period from the fourth through to the sixteenth century C.E. Culture is defined in its widest form to include art, all manner of history, languages, literature, medicine, music, philosophy, religion and science. The geographic limits of inquiry will be bounded only by the limits in which the traditions interacted. Confluence, too, will be construed in its widest form to permit exploration of more indirect interactions and influences and to permit examination of important subjects on a comparative basis.
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