'Jerusalem in Ragtime': reconstructions of 'The Jew' in first World War Britain
'Jerusalem in Ragtime': reconstructions of 'The Jew' in first World War Britain
This thesis explores representations of Jewish identity in English literature and culture in the period during and immediately after the First World War, tracing their development through a range of texts, including press articles, sermons, political speeches and pamphlets, poetry, novels and plays. The study is constructed around four rhetorical themes - those of 'crusade', 'conversion', 'crucifixion' and 'apocalypse' - and explores the uptake of these tropes of righteous embattlement in suffragette and anti-vice propaganda, into the war and the post-war period.
Popular rhetoric portrayed Britain as a devoutly Christian nation engaged in 'holy war' against the forces of non-Christian 'evil'. Ostensibly the enemies were 'pagan' Germany and the Muslim Turks, but Jews also became the focus of hostility. In the context of rhetorically-constructed 'Christian warfare', old allegations made by Christians towards Jews began to re-circulate. Popular uptake and expansion of the stock Christian narratives of betrayal and sacrifice in the crucifixion story, and the battle of the 'last days' described in the Book of Revelation, provided the antisemitic closure that these stories require for their coherence and dramatic effect. The image of Judas, in particular, emerged in relation to events in Bolshevik Russia and the fear that socialism would take hold in Britain. Representations of 'Jewish Bolshevism' combined religious, political and sexual fears linked to Jews, to produce new images of the threat that 'Jews' represented to the Christian nation-state.
The thesis examines the function of the image of 'the Jew' in representations of British national identity during this period, and explores the responses to Anglo-Jewish writers to corresponding representations of Jewish collective identity, focusing mainly on the work of Isaac Rosenberg, Gilbert Frankau and Gladys Bronwyn Stern.
University of Southampton
Pendlebury, Alyson Jane
4a02d39a-add4-4249-b3db-5b26a750d075
2001
Pendlebury, Alyson Jane
4a02d39a-add4-4249-b3db-5b26a750d075
Pendlebury, Alyson Jane
(2001)
'Jerusalem in Ragtime': reconstructions of 'The Jew' in first World War Britain.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
This thesis explores representations of Jewish identity in English literature and culture in the period during and immediately after the First World War, tracing their development through a range of texts, including press articles, sermons, political speeches and pamphlets, poetry, novels and plays. The study is constructed around four rhetorical themes - those of 'crusade', 'conversion', 'crucifixion' and 'apocalypse' - and explores the uptake of these tropes of righteous embattlement in suffragette and anti-vice propaganda, into the war and the post-war period.
Popular rhetoric portrayed Britain as a devoutly Christian nation engaged in 'holy war' against the forces of non-Christian 'evil'. Ostensibly the enemies were 'pagan' Germany and the Muslim Turks, but Jews also became the focus of hostility. In the context of rhetorically-constructed 'Christian warfare', old allegations made by Christians towards Jews began to re-circulate. Popular uptake and expansion of the stock Christian narratives of betrayal and sacrifice in the crucifixion story, and the battle of the 'last days' described in the Book of Revelation, provided the antisemitic closure that these stories require for their coherence and dramatic effect. The image of Judas, in particular, emerged in relation to events in Bolshevik Russia and the fear that socialism would take hold in Britain. Representations of 'Jewish Bolshevism' combined religious, political and sexual fears linked to Jews, to produce new images of the threat that 'Jews' represented to the Christian nation-state.
The thesis examines the function of the image of 'the Jew' in representations of British national identity during this period, and explores the responses to Anglo-Jewish writers to corresponding representations of Jewish collective identity, focusing mainly on the work of Isaac Rosenberg, Gilbert Frankau and Gladys Bronwyn Stern.
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Published date: 2001
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Local EPrints ID: 464518
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/464518
PURE UUID: 8220bbae-1798-4793-9a4e-b1de65174911
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 23:43
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 19:34
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Author:
Alyson Jane Pendlebury
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