ENGL2060 Lecture 7: Week 8 Lecture
Week 8 ENGL Lecture – The Merchant of Venice
Themes:
• Female that represent patriarchy
• Dramatize the specular of a man
• Tragedy or a comedy
Play:
• Q1 – 1600
• Q2 – 1619
• First Folio – 1623
• Working on King John, Richard II, 1 Henry IV
• Ranked as a comedy – one of the most contentious and disturbing plays
• Issues of gender, class, racial and religious difference
• Fundamentally anti-semetic and embodying the Other
• It matters because of what Shakespeare means to us
• Raises view that he was accepting of the world view and not exceptional by rising above his
time
• Fraught historical context
• Christians are very cynical employing religious other rhetoric
Loomba:
• 141
• Jews were insiders and outsiders – essential but not Christian
• Indistinguishable from the usual population yet they were marked as different
• Difference is hard to define (hence wearing different clothes)
• Centrality of the Jews come through money
• Antonio is the virtuous one
• Love and money are often tied together
Loomba:
• 149
• Christians condemned money-lending at excessive rates
• Set at 10% (legal) – above 10% considered to be a usurer
• Vicious circle to follow the profession of money-lending but condemned for doing so
• Shakespeare let out money at more than 10% himself
• Rulers turned to Jewish money lenders – would usually turn to blackmail
Loomba:
• 151
• Exposed cultural nerve
• Insistence on the markers such as clothing
• Cannot tell which is which – which is the Jew and which is the merchant
1.3.102-9:
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Document Summary
Week 8 engl lecture the merchant of venice. Themes: female that represent patriarchy, dramatize the specular of a man, tragedy or a comedy. Play: q1 1600, q2 1619, first folio 1623, working on king john, richard ii, 1 henry iv, ranked as a comedy one of the most contentious and disturbing plays. Issues of gender, class, racial and religious difference: fundamentally anti-semetic and embodying the other. It matters because of what shakespeare means to us: raises view that he was accepting of the world view and not exceptional by rising above his time, fraught historical context, christians are very cynical employing religious other rhetoric. Jews were insiders and outsiders essential but not christian. Indistinguishable from the usual population yet they were marked as different: 141, difference is hard to define (hence wearing different clothes, centrality of the jews come through money, antonio is the virtuous one.
