Full Description
At the close of the twentieth century the stereotyping and demonization of 'others', whether on religious, nationalist, racist, or political grounds, has become a burning issue. Yet comparatively little attention has been paid to how and why we fabricate images of the 'other' as an enemy or 'demon' to be destroyed. This innovative book fills that gap through an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural approach that brings together a distinguished array of historians, anthropologists, psychologists, literary critics, and feminists.
The historical sweep covers Greco-Roman Antiquity, the MIddle Ages, and the MOdern Era. Antisemitism receives special attention because of its longevity and centrality to the Holocaust, but it is analyzed here within the much broader framework of racism and xenophobia. The plurality of viewpoints expressed in this volume provide fascinating insights into what is common and what is unique to the many varieties of prejudice, stereotyping, demonization, and hatred.
Contents
List of illustrations Foreword Introduction: The Devil, the Jews, and hatred of the 'Other' Robert S. Wistrich Part 1 1. Demonising the 'Other' Harumi Befu 2. Why do stereotypes stick? Yaccov Schul and Henri Zukier 3. The demonization of the 'Other' in the visual arts Ziva Amishai-Maisels 4. Antisemitism and Other -isms in the Greco-Roman world Daniel R. SChwartz 5. Jews and Christians in the MIddle AGes: Shared myths, common language Israel J. Yuval 6. Jews and Christians in Medieval Muslim thought Hava Lazarus-Yafeh 7. Transformation of hatred: Antisemitism as a struggle for group identity Henri Zukier 8. The borrowed identity: Neo-Pagan reactions to the Jewish roots of Christianity Shmuel Almog 9. Exploring the Other: The Enlightenment's search for the boundaries of humanity Shulamit Volkov 10. Otherness and difference: The perspective of gender theory Yael S. Feldman 11. Recurrent images in French Antisemitism in the Third Republic Richard I. Cohen 12. The critique of Judaism in modern European thought: Genuine factors and demonic perceptions Otto D. Kulka Part II 13. 'Europe's inner demons': The 'Other' as threat in early twentieth-century European culture Saul Friedländer 14. Nazi Antisemitism: Animalisation and demonisation Phillipe Burrin 15. When the demon itself complains of being demonized Simon Epstein 16. 'All poets are Yids': The voice of the 'Other' in Paul Celan John Felsteiner 17. The popular image of the Jew in modern Poland Yisrael Gutman 18. Mass death under Communist rule and the limits of 'Otherness' Steven T. Katz 19. The flourishing demon: Japan in the role of the Jews? Ben-AMi Shillony 20. ANti-Jewish imagery in the contemporary Arab-Muslim world Rivka Yadlin 21. The Protocls of the Elders of Zion : New uses of an old myth Dina Porat 22. The motivations and imapct of contemporary Holocaust denial in Germany Wolfgang Benz 23. Xenophobia and Antisemitism in the new Europe: The case of Germany Robert S. Wistrich Index
