131-221 Modern Antisemitism: A Cultural History

Usually 25 points of first-year history or Jewish studies, see Prerequisites.

Anti-Semitism as a cultural phenomenon, as well as a serious political force, appears to be growing and developing into new forms, according to some commentators, rather than diminishing after its discrediting with the collapse of the Nazi regime. But what is anti-Semitism? Does it have a conceptual continuity that has persisted over time, with some variations, or do the historical changes in its forms and its sources mark out a more discontinuous history? What are the implications to our understanding of anti-Semitism if our answer is the latter? This subject will explore the nature of the entity that has come to be known as anti-Semitism, and consider the question of its integrity as a cultural phenomenon. In particular, we will examine the changing meanings and cultural forms of this phenomenon over time in a number of different parts of the world. We will also address the question of the relationship between the advent of modernity and anti-Semitism, and consider how both functioned as determining forces for Jewish identity and existence in the modern period. In this context we will consider the grounds for thinking through the idea of 'the Jew' as an ambivalent figure at once 'white' and 'black', 'feminine' and 'masculine' - that simultaneously unsettles and sustains modernity. Students should complete this subject with an understanding of the different cultural forms and meanings of anti-Semitism, with a more considered appreciation of their historical conditions, and with a heightened awareness of some of the determinants of our modern notions of ethnicity, gender and race.