Free public lecture hosted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe 1100-1800) / Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group / Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (UWA):

“Anger, Envy and Hatred: “Jewish Emotions” in Early Modern European anti-Semitic Polemics” Dr Francois Soyer (University of Southampton, UK)

Date: Wednesday 10 August, 2016
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: Austin Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, The University of Western Australia
Registration: No RSVP required.
More info: http://www.historyofemotions.org.au/events/anger-envy-and-hatred-jewish-emotions-in-early-modern-european-anti-semitic-polemics

This lecture examines the role played by emotions in how the figure of the Jew was perceived and represented by early modern anti-Semitic polemicists. It argues that we urgently need to re-examine and nuance the existing perception of the early modern period as one of bland continuity in European anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic polemics and discourse with the medieval period. With the advent of the printing press, the consequent mass production of books and pamphlets and increased lay literacy, a new type of vernacular polemical literature appeared in early modern Europe alongside the older conversionist literature. These new vernacular polemics were no longer concerned with the conversion of Jews to Christianity. Rather their explicit objective was to lobby secular and ecclesiastical powers to take action against Jews (usually persecutory legal measures or expulsions) by actively promoting fear and hatred of Jews amongst the lay population. The History of Emotions can provide us with a conceptual framework that will help us understand how and why the discourse of anti-Jewish hatred was altered and adapted by authors from Protestant northern Germany to Catholic Portugal to target their new readers.