Lisa Lampert-Weissig | University of California, San Diego (original) (raw)
Books by Lisa Lampert-Weissig
Instrument of Memory: Encounters with the Wandering Jew, 2024
How can immortality be a curse? According to the Wandering Jew legend, as Jesus made his way to C... more How can immortality be a curse? According to the Wandering Jew legend, as Jesus made his way to Calvary, a man refused him rest, cruelly taunting him to hurry to meet his fate. In response, Jesus cursed the man to wander until the Second Coming. Since the medieval period, the legend has inspired hundreds of adaptations by artists and writers. Instrument of Memory: Encounters with the Wandering Jew, the first English-language study of the legend in over fifty years, is also the first to examine the influence of the legend’s medieval and early modern sources over the centuries into the present day. Using the lens of memory studies, the work shows how the Christian tradition of the legend centered the memory of the Passion at the heart of the Wandering Jew’s curse. Instrument of Memory also shows how Jewish artists and writers have reimagined the legend through Jewish memory traditions. Through this focus on memory, Jewish adapters of the legend create complex renderings of the Wandering Jew that recognize not only the entanglement of Jewish and Christian memory, but also the impact of that entanglement on Jewish subjects. This book presents a complex, sympathetic, and more fully realized version of the legend while challenging the limits of the presentism of memory studies.
Instrument of Memory: Encounters with the Wandering Jew, 2024
Flyer for my book, Instrument of Memory: Encounters with the Wandering Jew, which traces the Wand... more Flyer for my book, Instrument of Memory: Encounters with the Wandering Jew, which traces the Wandering Jew from its medieval roots through to the present day using the lens of memory studies. 30% Discount Code: UMS24
Papers by Lisa Lampert-Weissig
Gothic studies, Jul 1, 2024
BRILL eBooks, 2015
Race in the Vampire Narrative unpacks the vampire through a collection of classroom ready origina... more Race in the Vampire Narrative unpacks the vampire through a collection of classroom ready original essays that explicitly connect this archetypal outsider to studies in race, ethnicity, and identity. Through essays about the first recorded vampire craze, television shows True Blood, and Being Human, movies like Blade: Trinity and Underworld, to the presentation of vampires of colour in romance novels, graphic novels, on stage and beyond, this text will open doorways to discussions about Otherness in any setting, serving as an alternative way to explore marginality through a framework that welcomes all students into the conversation.
Modern Language Review, 2007
Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 2007
Ajs Review-the Journal of The Association for Jewish Studies, Nov 1, 2008
The Journal of Popular Culture, May 30, 2012
New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession, Oct 9, 2022
Manchester University Press eBooks, Nov 1, 2015
"The lives and work of and Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871-1943) and George Sylvester Viereck (1884-... more "The lives and work of and Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871-1943) and George Sylvester Viereck (1884-1962) have many interesting parallels and intersections. Both were extremely well known in their day. Viereck was hailed as a Wunderkind upon publication of his first volume of poetry, Nineveh, in 1907, the same year that he published his novel, House of the Vampire. While his poetic reputation waned rather quickly, he remained in the public eye as an interviewer, journalist and publisher who had connections to many prominent figures, including Theodore Roosevelt and Sigmund Freud. Ewers was also prolific, creating poetry, novels, films, travel writing and countless essays; he was the most translated author of the Weimar Republic. Both writers were known for their flouting of traditional morals and we can see the influence of the “decadence” movement and writers like Swinburne and Wilde on their work. When they are now mentioned, however, it is often for their support for Hitler’s National Socialist regime. Viereck was imprisoned in the U.S. during WWII for his pro-German views; Ewers was an early member of the Nazi party and was involved in the creation of pro-Nazi propaganda. When Ewer’s controversial earlier writings were scrutinized (and banned) by the Nazis, he nevertheless fought his expulsion from the party. Ewers and Viereck actually crossed paths in the United States during the First World War when they worked together in attempting to rally support for Germany and against Great Britain. Ewers was later interned by the U.S. government for his activities. One important product of Ewers’ sojourn in the U.S. is his novel, Vampir (1922). The novel is the third in a trilogy that includes Ewers’ most well known work , Alraune, the story of a deadly beauty born of a diabolical artificial insemination. The novels feature the exploits of Frank Braun, a reckless and ambiguous protagonist with strong autobiographical connections to Ewers. In my essay I will read Vampir against Viereck’s House of the Vampire, which I believe is an influence on it. I am interested in the ways in which both novels develop a vampire figure who is deeply problematic and dangerous, a user of others’ lives and bodies, but who is at the same time admirable, representative of an elite power for which sacrifice is justified. In House of the Vampire Reginald Clarke, the psychic vampire, preys upon young artists, draining them of their talent, and, in the case of protagonist Ernest Fielding, of their very minds. But at the same time that Clarke displays a corrupting evil reminiscent of Wilde’s Dorian Gray, Clarke is also the embodiment of genius, particularly artistic genius (a characteristic also resonant with Wilde’s work). He is compared to Homer, Shakespeare, Balzac, Napoleon and even to Jesus Christ as a figure that can reshape the world through his ability to absorb and distill the creative essence of those around him. Ewers’ Vampir is set up in such a way that it is not until the end of the novel that the reader, along with the protagonist Braun, realizes that Braun himself is a vampire. Braun has suspected throughout the novel that his German-Jewish lover, Lotte Lewi, has been draining him of blood and energy, but, in fact, Lotte has been sacrificing herself to him and through him to the German Fatherland. World War I has made the entire world athirst for blood and Lotte sacrifices herself to her lover and, through him, to the greater cause of Germany. My essay will provide the background necessary to understand the intersecting lives and art of these two authors and then compare the vampire figures in their novel to try to arrive at an understanding of the most challenging element of each of their biographies: the embrace of Nazism that seems, at least on the surface, to be completely out of step with their unconventional lives and views and the philo-semitism that they each at one time espoused. I will argue that the ambivalent figure of the vampire in their works, a figure who is both destructive, but also worthy of sacrifice. In this way the vampire can be seen as a metaphor for their approach to National-Socialism as an evil necessary for awhat they saw as an overriding greater good, the survival of Germany"
Literature Compass, Dec 1, 2016
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Jun 16, 2010
English Language Notes, Sep 1, 2015
Instrument of Memory: Encounters with the Wandering Jew, 2024
How can immortality be a curse? According to the Wandering Jew legend, as Jesus made his way to C... more How can immortality be a curse? According to the Wandering Jew legend, as Jesus made his way to Calvary, a man refused him rest, cruelly taunting him to hurry to meet his fate. In response, Jesus cursed the man to wander until the Second Coming. Since the medieval period, the legend has inspired hundreds of adaptations by artists and writers. Instrument of Memory: Encounters with the Wandering Jew, the first English-language study of the legend in over fifty years, is also the first to examine the influence of the legend’s medieval and early modern sources over the centuries into the present day. Using the lens of memory studies, the work shows how the Christian tradition of the legend centered the memory of the Passion at the heart of the Wandering Jew’s curse. Instrument of Memory also shows how Jewish artists and writers have reimagined the legend through Jewish memory traditions. Through this focus on memory, Jewish adapters of the legend create complex renderings of the Wandering Jew that recognize not only the entanglement of Jewish and Christian memory, but also the impact of that entanglement on Jewish subjects. This book presents a complex, sympathetic, and more fully realized version of the legend while challenging the limits of the presentism of memory studies.
Instrument of Memory: Encounters with the Wandering Jew, 2024
Flyer for my book, Instrument of Memory: Encounters with the Wandering Jew, which traces the Wand... more Flyer for my book, Instrument of Memory: Encounters with the Wandering Jew, which traces the Wandering Jew from its medieval roots through to the present day using the lens of memory studies. 30% Discount Code: UMS24
Gothic studies, Jul 1, 2024
BRILL eBooks, 2015
Race in the Vampire Narrative unpacks the vampire through a collection of classroom ready origina... more Race in the Vampire Narrative unpacks the vampire through a collection of classroom ready original essays that explicitly connect this archetypal outsider to studies in race, ethnicity, and identity. Through essays about the first recorded vampire craze, television shows True Blood, and Being Human, movies like Blade: Trinity and Underworld, to the presentation of vampires of colour in romance novels, graphic novels, on stage and beyond, this text will open doorways to discussions about Otherness in any setting, serving as an alternative way to explore marginality through a framework that welcomes all students into the conversation.
Modern Language Review, 2007
Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 2007
Ajs Review-the Journal of The Association for Jewish Studies, Nov 1, 2008
The Journal of Popular Culture, May 30, 2012
New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession, Oct 9, 2022
Manchester University Press eBooks, Nov 1, 2015
"The lives and work of and Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871-1943) and George Sylvester Viereck (1884-... more "The lives and work of and Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871-1943) and George Sylvester Viereck (1884-1962) have many interesting parallels and intersections. Both were extremely well known in their day. Viereck was hailed as a Wunderkind upon publication of his first volume of poetry, Nineveh, in 1907, the same year that he published his novel, House of the Vampire. While his poetic reputation waned rather quickly, he remained in the public eye as an interviewer, journalist and publisher who had connections to many prominent figures, including Theodore Roosevelt and Sigmund Freud. Ewers was also prolific, creating poetry, novels, films, travel writing and countless essays; he was the most translated author of the Weimar Republic. Both writers were known for their flouting of traditional morals and we can see the influence of the “decadence” movement and writers like Swinburne and Wilde on their work. When they are now mentioned, however, it is often for their support for Hitler’s National Socialist regime. Viereck was imprisoned in the U.S. during WWII for his pro-German views; Ewers was an early member of the Nazi party and was involved in the creation of pro-Nazi propaganda. When Ewer’s controversial earlier writings were scrutinized (and banned) by the Nazis, he nevertheless fought his expulsion from the party. Ewers and Viereck actually crossed paths in the United States during the First World War when they worked together in attempting to rally support for Germany and against Great Britain. Ewers was later interned by the U.S. government for his activities. One important product of Ewers’ sojourn in the U.S. is his novel, Vampir (1922). The novel is the third in a trilogy that includes Ewers’ most well known work , Alraune, the story of a deadly beauty born of a diabolical artificial insemination. The novels feature the exploits of Frank Braun, a reckless and ambiguous protagonist with strong autobiographical connections to Ewers. In my essay I will read Vampir against Viereck’s House of the Vampire, which I believe is an influence on it. I am interested in the ways in which both novels develop a vampire figure who is deeply problematic and dangerous, a user of others’ lives and bodies, but who is at the same time admirable, representative of an elite power for which sacrifice is justified. In House of the Vampire Reginald Clarke, the psychic vampire, preys upon young artists, draining them of their talent, and, in the case of protagonist Ernest Fielding, of their very minds. But at the same time that Clarke displays a corrupting evil reminiscent of Wilde’s Dorian Gray, Clarke is also the embodiment of genius, particularly artistic genius (a characteristic also resonant with Wilde’s work). He is compared to Homer, Shakespeare, Balzac, Napoleon and even to Jesus Christ as a figure that can reshape the world through his ability to absorb and distill the creative essence of those around him. Ewers’ Vampir is set up in such a way that it is not until the end of the novel that the reader, along with the protagonist Braun, realizes that Braun himself is a vampire. Braun has suspected throughout the novel that his German-Jewish lover, Lotte Lewi, has been draining him of blood and energy, but, in fact, Lotte has been sacrificing herself to him and through him to the German Fatherland. World War I has made the entire world athirst for blood and Lotte sacrifices herself to her lover and, through him, to the greater cause of Germany. My essay will provide the background necessary to understand the intersecting lives and art of these two authors and then compare the vampire figures in their novel to try to arrive at an understanding of the most challenging element of each of their biographies: the embrace of Nazism that seems, at least on the surface, to be completely out of step with their unconventional lives and views and the philo-semitism that they each at one time espoused. I will argue that the ambivalent figure of the vampire in their works, a figure who is both destructive, but also worthy of sacrifice. In this way the vampire can be seen as a metaphor for their approach to National-Socialism as an evil necessary for awhat they saw as an overriding greater good, the survival of Germany"
Literature Compass, Dec 1, 2016
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Jun 16, 2010
English Language Notes, Sep 1, 2015
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, Jan 30, 2024
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, Jan 30, 2024
Place matters, and this essay explores how living and studying at Yarnton Manor, Oxford, has impa... more Place matters, and this essay explores how living and studying at Yarnton Manor, Oxford, has impacted my teaching. The (obscured) history of Oxford Jews becomes real when one lives in the history of the Jews. For instance, medieval Jews are both present and absent in modern Oxford: the Oxford Jewish cemetery was established in the twelfth century, but its memory is marked only by a plaque on the Botanic Garden’s gates. The story of this site mirrors others in England and throughout Europe. The importance of place and on-the-ground experiences are important to identity and collective memory both in the Middle Ages and in the now. Identity and collective memory are important themes not only in medieval courses but also in courses addressing modern topics.
New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession, Oct 9, 2022
The editorial staff of New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession works hard to ensure that con... more The editorial staff of New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession works hard to ensure that contributions are accurate and follow professional ethical guidelines. However, the views and opinions expressed in each contribution belong exclusively to the author(s). The publisher and the editors do not endorse or accept responsibility for them. See https://escholarship.org/uc/ncs_pedagogyandprofession/policies for more information.
Digital project that reimagines medieval Jewish-Christian relations through innovative cartograph... more Digital project that reimagines medieval Jewish-Christian relations through innovative cartographies.