David Sclar, Review of "E.M. Rose, ‘The The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015)," Jewish Book Council. (original) (raw)
sexual permutations that remained emotionally subordinate to her homosocial bonds. But Peakman declines to advance such interpretations. Peakman avoids another possibility for feminist analysis in a chapter on prostitutes' autobiographies, which she opens by claiming that women wrote to assert for their right to sexual pleasure, but closes by remarking "how little sex is mentioned" in the texts (98). These engrossing narratives meditate on the contradictions of prostitute sexuality: women crave constancy but engage in sex work; they love and are jilted; they are autonomous but are raped; their sex acts are both public and private. Pleasure is nowhere-and injustice everywhereso one wonders why Peakman tempts with the promise of a doctrine of sexual freedom. The documents bear out the precise opposite: an account of sexuality that focuses not on bodily pleasure but on the material conditions of gender and class that make women vulnerable to-and valuable within-a pervasive system of sexual commerce. These questions lead me back to Peakman's title: Amatory Pleasures. She works from the assumption that the sexual is the amatory and that the domain of sexuality is also that of pleasure. But her sources show sexuality to be, particularly for women, much more than an arena of diversion. Their bodies are used, read, and tested by commerce, literature, politics, and science, and their social recognition and material livelihood depend largely on their performance of sexuality, whether it be in the form of chastity or commercial sex work-a double bind of which Peakman is at times aware. But a reader new to this field will want to know why, for example, if "[g]irls were expected to remain chaste until marriage" (4), some communities ritualized premarital sexual activity (6). Peakman perceptively detects the peculiar, surprising facets of eighteenth-century attitudes toward sex, but oversimplifies her findings. The biggest of these simplifications is to cast sex as exclusively a realm of pleasure, a move that privileges historical actors like the landed aristocratic men who designed ejaculating fountains-who practiced sex with ease and without much consequence-far above the working prostitutes who risked sickness and incarceration in their trade. These complexities are not mere academic considerations; they are evidence that sexuality evades any one reigning designation-even that of pleasure.
E. M. Rose. The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe
The American Historical Review, 2017
sexual permutations that remained emotionally subordinate to her homosocial bonds. But Peakman declines to advance such interpretations. Peakman avoids another possibility for feminist analysis in a chapter on prostitutes' autobiographies, which she opens by claiming that women wrote to assert for their right to sexual pleasure, but closes by remarking "how little sex is mentioned" in the texts (98). These engrossing narratives meditate on the contradictions of prostitute sexuality: women crave constancy but engage in sex work; they love and are jilted; they are autonomous but are raped; their sex acts are both public and private. Pleasure is nowhere-and injustice everywhereso one wonders why Peakman tempts with the promise of a doctrine of sexual freedom. The documents bear out the precise opposite: an account of sexuality that focuses not on bodily pleasure but on the material conditions of gender and class that make women vulnerable to-and valuable within-a pervasive system of sexual commerce. These questions lead me back to Peakman's title: Amatory Pleasures. She works from the assumption that the sexual is the amatory and that the domain of sexuality is also that of pleasure. But her sources show sexuality to be, particularly for women, much more than an arena of diversion. Their bodies are used, read, and tested by commerce, literature, politics, and science, and their social recognition and material livelihood depend largely on their performance of sexuality, whether it be in the form of chastity or commercial sex work-a double bind of which Peakman is at times aware. But a reader new to this field will want to know why, for example, if "[g]irls were expected to remain chaste until marriage" (4), some communities ritualized premarital sexual activity (6). Peakman perceptively detects the peculiar, surprising facets of eighteenth-century attitudes toward sex, but oversimplifies her findings. The biggest of these simplifications is to cast sex as exclusively a realm of pleasure, a move that privileges historical actors like the landed aristocratic men who designed ejaculating fountains-who practiced sex with ease and without much consequence-far above the working prostitutes who risked sickness and incarceration in their trade. These complexities are not mere academic considerations; they are evidence that sexuality evades any one reigning designation-even that of pleasure.
This thesis will explore the emergence and development of the narrative that Jews ritually killed Christian children in twelfth and thirteenth century England. The role that these accusations played in ‘demonising’ Jews did not diminish during the following centuries but instead grew in popularity. The accusations that gave rise to these narratives have their origin in the specific social, cultural, and religious environment of twelfth century England. Historians have long treated the accusations of ritual murder as separate events and analysed them as such. However, the power of these accusations lies in their ability to be constructed as narratives and to spread through adaption into different communities and societies. This adaption is due to the ability that these narratives have to incorporate other narratives that are popular in different communities. Hagiographical elements, Marian tales, and biblical stories that manipulation of the innocence of children were incorporated into the narratives of ritual murder which served to elicit a specific emotive response and engagement with their audience. This development in the nature of the ritual murder narratives is a reflection of both English society and the changing nature of the Anglo-Jewish relationship during the central Middle Ages. This thesis will add to the evolving discussions surrounding the emergence of ritual murder and the subsequent spread of the blood libel accusation. By tracing the accusations back to their origin in England, and analysing how it evolved during the space of two centuries, an increasingly comprehensive understanding of the narratives can be constructed. By utilising hagiographical material, chronicle accounts, and literature created in post-expulsion England, this thesis aims to present a cohesive analysis of different narrative strands that were woven together to construct and develop the accusations of ritual murder.
A Jewish Woman's Appeal of Murder in Thirteenth-Century England
Legal History Miscellany, 2018
https://legalhistorymiscellany.com/2018/08/17/a-jewish-womans-appeal-of-murder-in-thirteenth-century-england/ Let us consider an inquest into allegations surrounding the homicide of Josce le Arblaster, Jew of Northampton, in the third year of the reign of King Edward I (1274/75). Olympias of Towcester, a Christian woman,[9] stood accused of the crime. Josce’s daughter, known only in the records as Floria the Jew, had come forward to lodge a formal accusation (known in medieval parlance as an “appeal”) against her. Olympias emphatically denied that she was in any way liable for Josce’s death. Indeed, she maintained that she was a victim to Floria’s malevolent plotting, accused out of hate and spite (de odio et atya) for a crime she did not commit. Nonetheless, Olympias had been arrested and imprisoned at Northampton while awaiting trial.
Cruentation, Medieval Anti-Jewish Polemic, and Ritual Murder
Antisemitism Studies, 2019
In his Bonum universale de apibus (On Bees), the Dominican Thomas of Cantimpré recorded several instances in which the corpse of a murder victim spontaneously effused blood in the presence of the murderer. In one of these stories, Thomas provided an account of a ritual murder (ca. 1260). In this article, I examine the relationship between this phenomenon of "cruentation" and the anti-Jewish exemplum. I also identify some of the distinctive features of the tale, including the claim that the Jews typically harvest the blood of their Christian victims in order to address certain defects in their own nature. Finally, I examine the unusual identification of the Christian victim as female in relation to another ritual murder account at Valreás in 1247.
Given the prominent role played by martyrological literature among the Jewish communities of northern France, and the close relationship between the two communities, the absence of martyrological writing from England is striking. Until now, scholars have largely assumed that the relatively small community of medieval English Jews was not culturally sophisticated enough to produce such literature on its own. This paper looks at a liturgical poem by Meir of Norwich, a thirteenth-century English Jewish poet whose poems survive in a variety of genres. The poem 'Put a curse on my enemy' describes the conditions of economic, communal and spiritual devastation that characterize thirteenth-century English Jewry. The poet shows considerable literary ability and moreover a keen understanding of the 'modern' poetic styles made fashionable by the Spanish Jewish poets of the preceding century. Meir's work suggests it is time to re-evaluate the cultural activity of medieval English Jewry, which, like its continental analogues, sought to express the particularity of its experience of persecution in verse. A translation and edited text follow.
From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism? The Development of the Myth of Jewish Ritual Murder in England
Accusations of Jewish ritual murder have persisted into the modern era, but the medieval origins of the accusation reflect the society from which it emerged. Between 1066 and 1290 the perception and position of the Jewish population in England changed. This period also witnessed the origins of the ritual murder accusations. In 1144 the accusation was dismissed by a majority of the population; by 1255 it was accepted by the Christian community and the Jews were the first place they turned when the body of the child was found. By locating the changing position of the Jewish community, and then comparing the development of the ritual murder accusations between the case of William of Norwich and Hugh of Lincoln, it allows the Jewish community to be viewed from a different vantage point. This dissertation will also critique Gavin Langmuir’s conception of medieval anti-Semitism, by exploring the alleged ‘irrational’ nature of the ritual murder accusation. The argument will be made, that they are also based in rational financial and societal concerns, and thus not the ‘irrational’ manifestations that Langmuir outlined. By the murder of Hugh in 1255, these accusations had passed into folk legend and taken on a more malevolent form but still had a rational financial underpinning. The accusation became part of the general perception of the Jews, and lasted long after the Jews were expelled. The development of the rituals, is key to understanding the way that the position of the Jews was changing in English society
Violence in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds
2018
Nikoletta MANIOTI 12. Violence against Slaves as an Element of Theatre in Plautus Marc MAYER I OLIVÉ 13. Himerius's Testimony on mousike as a Means of Preventing Violence in the Late Antique School of Rhetoric . . . . José Guillermo MONTES CALA 14. Violence and Myth: The Creative Violence of Dragon-Slaying in the Ancient and Early Medieval Worlds . . . Daniel OGDEN 15. Death Omens in Aeschylus and Sophocles: Clytaemnestra's Dream between Blood Revenge and the Struggle for Power Pierpaolo PERONI