The Jewish Other: Christian Constructions and Literary Representations (1790-1830)

This thesis explores Christian constructions of the Jewish Other in late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century British and Irish literature. Although there have been critical studies on aspects of Jewish representation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, existing research focuses on Anglo-Jewish history or specific areas of Jewish representation, such as the Jewess, or particular genres such as the Gothic. The aim of this thesis is to build upon and move beyond the established work, focusing in particular on the ways in which Christian constructions of Jewish Others engage with established antisemitic and emerging philosemitic traditions, reflect Christian anxieties, and ultimately exploit such representations to uphold Christian hegemony. Uncovering the religious, theological, cultural, and literary foundations that underpin Christian constructions of Jewish otherness in the fiction of the period, this thesis examines a range of genres and discusses well-known novels alongside critically understudied texts. It does so in conversation with a number of other cultural productions including poetry, drama, and sermons. Each chapter focuses on a specific facet of the Jewish Other including the monstrous supernatural Other, the racial Other, the benevolent Jew and his loving daughter, and the palimpsestic spectre of the Wandering Jew. Examining the tension inherent in a literary construction that could be either ‘Brother’ or ‘Other’, this thesis will argue that representations of Jewishness in this period ultimately reflect anxieties about the British Christian Self acted out through constructions of the Jewish Other.