Paper presentation in the Guild of Students
Converting the Shylockian Myth in Maria Edgeworth’s Harrington
Rachel Ben-Itzhak, English
February 10th, 5.30 pm McAusland Lounge, Guild Building FREE food & refreshments will be served.
Abstract:
This paper combines socio-cultural studies and literary criticism to understand the relevance of Shylock to the Jewish question in the early nineteenth century. Maria Edgeworth’s 1817 novel, Harrington, reveals and discusses the inherited and perpetuated tradition regarding the conceptualisation of the Jew. The novel is an acute assessment of the role of imagination in perpetuating prejudices against the Judeo-racial other. Michael Ragussis, in Figures of Conversion, poses the following question: ‘In England, where the Jew is primarily a figure of the imagination and where Shylock holds the place of priority, do we learn to hate real Jews through their representations?’1 Within this context, my paper comes to re-examine to what extent Harrington exposes English anti-Semitic attitudes around the early nineteenth century and the role of imagination in facilitating and preserving prejudice. Furthermore, through examining Edgeworth’s portrayal of the Jew, I will assess whether Edgeworth’s conceptualisation is in itself influenced by imagination or previous imaginings of the Jew or an actual attempt at portraying ‘real’ Jews. I will also view Edgeworth’s proposal as to how, or under which conditions, the Jew — the other — can overcome intolerance and subjective misconception to successfully assimilate into English society.
