Jews and Jewishness in English Renaissance Literature and Culture

Tuition: $400 | YIVO members: $325**
Students: $215 (Must register with valid university email address)

This is a live, online seminar held weekly on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 15 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, etc.) will be posted to Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in English.

Instructor: Becky Friedman

Course Description:
When asking “Hath not a Jew eyes?” in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Shylock poses a question about what actual points of difference exist between people with distinct religious backgrounds. One of numerous English Renaissance plays that broaches religion, race, and nationhood, the Shakespearean drama explores a range of questions that are as relevant in the twenty-first century as they were in the sixteenth: How do religious and racial identities interact? How do cultural and political forces impact representation, and vice versa?

This course will tackle these complex themes by reading and discussing canonical and lesser-known English Renaissance texts that feature Jewish characters and Jewish questions. Together, we will examine topics that range from medieval literary precedents to Elizabethan theater conventions, reading excerpts from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, and much more. We will also look at religion of the early modern world more broadly, analyze contemporary popular culture, and develop a thorough understanding of attitudes towards Jews and Jewishness during the English Renaissance.

Who should take this course?
This class is open to anyone interested in the topic as outlined in the course description. The class discussion will be conducted in English, and all course materials will be read in English or in English translation. No previous background knowledge or specific education level is required.

Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all course materials digitally throughout the class on Canvas. Purchasing the following two books is optional but encouraged:

• The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine (Purchase)
• The Jew of Malta (in Doctor Faustus and Other Plays by Christopher Marlowe, edited by David Bevington and Eric Rasmussen) (Purchase)

Dr. Becky S. Friedman completed her graduate work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a dissertation titled “The Badge of All Our Tribe”: Contradictions of Jewish Representation on the English Renaissance Stage. Her scholarly interests include English Renaissance drama, the history of Jews and Judaism in England, and gender and religion in early modern Europe. Her research reveals how London playhouses embraced Jewishness as a productive means of exploring difference and likeness at a time when economic transformation and globalizing influences were renegotiating the terms of communal belonging. In addition to a PhD, Dr. Friedman holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in English literature, both from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently writing her first book, The Jewish Body on the Shakespearean Stage, while working at Penn’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.

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