Event Title
Theater and Ritual Murder
Location
Diamond 344
Start Date
30-4-2015 2:20 PM
End Date
30-4-2015 2:55 PM
Project Type
Presentation
Description
In Reformation Germany, Christians began to persecute Jews for a wide array of sacrilegious activities. Most commonly, Christians accused Jews of host desecration and ritual murder of Christian children. Often, the accusations held little water, but fear and torture was often enough to illicit confessions from the accused. Despite the fact that accusations spread like wildfire, there were those who championed the innocence of Jews. They did so in pamphlets, or in official mandates. However, the population, less than 20% of which was literate, was unreceptive to the written word. People did, however, pay a lot of attention to anti-Semitic plays. Because most people couldn't read, theatrics had a much more profound affect on society than did pamphlets. The Croxton Play of the Sacrament, as well as Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice prominently feature anti-Semitic themes, which is not atypical of the period. Though playwrights claimed to stick to the truth of trial records, seldom were their plays accurate representations of haphazard trials. This project examines how the language of plays contributed to a growing fear of Jews. People respond to theatrics in comparison to other methods of spreading information; this project investigates the link between drama and fear.
Faculty Sponsor
Larissa Taylor
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. History Dept.
CLAS Field of Study
Social Sciences
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
1417
Theater and Ritual Murder
Diamond 344
In Reformation Germany, Christians began to persecute Jews for a wide array of sacrilegious activities. Most commonly, Christians accused Jews of host desecration and ritual murder of Christian children. Often, the accusations held little water, but fear and torture was often enough to illicit confessions from the accused. Despite the fact that accusations spread like wildfire, there were those who championed the innocence of Jews. They did so in pamphlets, or in official mandates. However, the population, less than 20% of which was literate, was unreceptive to the written word. People did, however, pay a lot of attention to anti-Semitic plays. Because most people couldn't read, theatrics had a much more profound affect on society than did pamphlets. The Croxton Play of the Sacrament, as well as Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice prominently feature anti-Semitic themes, which is not atypical of the period. Though playwrights claimed to stick to the truth of trial records, seldom were their plays accurate representations of haphazard trials. This project examines how the language of plays contributed to a growing fear of Jews. People respond to theatrics in comparison to other methods of spreading information; this project investigates the link between drama and fear.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/324