Description
Book SynopsisAnti-Semitism and British Gothic Literature examines the Gothic''s engagement with the Jewish Question and British national identity over the course of a century. Beginning with an exploration of Jewish demonology from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, Davison interprets the changing significance of the trans-national Wandering Jew in classic Gothic fiction who later migrates into Victorian realism. What emerges is the elucidation of an anti-Semitic ''spectropoetics'' that convey how the spectres of Jewish difference and Jewish assimilation haunt British literature.
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Introduction: The Nation and the Spectral Wandering Jew The Contested Enlightenment, the Contested Castle The Primal Scene: The Skeleton in Britain's Closet Cabalistic Conspiracies and Crypto-Jews The Rise of the Vampiric Wandering Jew: A Sinister German-English Co-Production Britain, Vampire Empire: Fin-de-Siécle Fears and Bram Stoker's Dracula Afterword: Pathological Projection and the Nazi Nightmare Works Cited Index
