Inventing the Jew: Antisemitic Stereotypes in Romanian and Other Central-East European Cultures (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780803220980)

Inventing the Jew follows the evolution of stereotypes of Jews from the level of traditional Romanian and other Central-East European cultures (their legends, fairy tales, ballads, carols, anecdotes, superstitions, and iconographic representations) to that of "high" cultures (including literature, essays, journalism, and sociopolitical writings), showing how motifs specific to "folkloric antisemitism" migrated to "intellectual antisemitism." This comparative perspective also highlights how the images of Jews have differed from that of other "strangers" such as Hungarians, Germans, Roma, Turks, Armenians, and Greeks. The gap between the conception of the "imaginary Jew" and the "real Jew" is a cultural distance that differs over time and place, here seen through the lens of cultural anthropology.

Stereotypes of the "generic Jew" were not exclusively negative, and are described in five chapters depicting physical, occupational, moral and intellectual, mythical and magical, and religious portraits of "the Jew."

Author: Andrei Oisteanu
ISBN-10: 0803220987
ISBN-13: 9780803220980
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Language: English
Published: 05/01/2009
Pages: 480
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.85lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.50d

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 05/01/2009 pg. 20
Choice 03/01/2010