Информация о курсе

Lecture: Visual History of Antisemitism
Mon, 18-20 in H0107
https://maps.app.goo.gl/5ABvpgUMsoCyBwqw5
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Uffa Jensen
Email: jensen@tu-berlin (you need to send an email to: <span lang="EN-US">asf-tb-sekretariat@win.tu-berlin.de as well)
Office Hour: Tue 16-17 in my office (alternative you can arrange for a zoom-meeting under: <span lang="EN-US">asf-tb-sekretariat@win.tu-berlin.de</span>)

Antisemitism in all its historical formations has always relied on images to portray Jews in an ideological fashion. From the medieval period, Christian polemics against Judaism have been characterized by an imaginative and frequently ideological portrayal of the Jewish religion. With the use of images in religious settings (in the architecture of Christian churches, religious illustrations, book-cover etc.) which intensified during the high middle-ages, the depictions of Jews became increasingly important. Inner-Christian tensions like the reformation in the 16^th century also led to the further proliferation of such visual material. With the increasing secularization of anti-Jewish polemics, this material has been adapted to new needs. The emerging of a modern mass-market with increasingly capitalistic structures as well as with technological innovations – from the printing-press to the enhanced illustration techniques of the late 19^th century – enabled an ever faster consumption of images. Thus, a broad array of media formats occurred which could be used for antisemitic motifs and stereotypes. Long before the Holocaust and the Nazi version of racist antisemitism, a rich inventory of negative depiction of Jews was established and has been proliferated throughout European societies (and, to a yet not well-known degree, beyond Europe). Although the Holocaust did cause a rupture to this visual proliferation at least in most European societies, the material never vanished. In recent years, due to the new technological possibilities of the internet and especially the diverse social media formats, new possibilities of distributing this material have emerged. (Old as well as new) antisemitic imagery has been used in these channels to a yet unknown degree.

The lecture series will focus on the long history of visual antisemitism by discussing individual pieces of art. It will identify antisemitic traditions in visual material as well as discuss the challenges of interpreting them. Apart from simply focusing on the ‘content’ of the images – to be studied with well-established methods like iconography and iconology – the media dimension of the material will be investigated too. Additionally and where-ever possible, the social and cultural usage of such images need to be examined in the lectures as well.

The lecture will be held in English. A tutorial in German will be offered alongside the lecture series. Students of the lecture are encouraged to also take the tutorial, but this is not a requirement.

General Literature (for specific literature check the distributed list):

-       Bale, Anthony Paul: Feeling Persecuted. Christians, Jews and Images of violence in the Middle Ages, London 2010.
-       Blumenkranz, Bernhard: Juden und Judentum in der mittelalterlichen Kunst, Stuttgart 1965.
-       Gilman, Sander L.: The Jew's Body, London, New York 1991.
-       Haibl, Michaela: Zerrbild als Stereotyp. Visuelle Darstellungen von Juden zwischen 1850 und 1900, Berlin 2000.
-       Hauser, Jakub, Eva Janáčová und Secklehner Julia (Hrsg.): Visual Antisemitism in Central Europe. Imagery of Hatred, Berlin 2021.
-       Lipton, Sara: Images of Intolerance: The Representation of Jews and Judaism in the "Bible Moralisée", Berkeley 1999.
-       Lipton, Sara: Dark Mirror. The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography, 1. ed. Aufl., New York 2014.
-       Merback, Mitchell B. (Hrsg.): Beyond the Yellow Badge. Anti-Judaism and Antisemitism in Medieval und Early Modern Visual Culture, Leiden, Boston 2008.
-       Rohrbacher, Stefan und Michael Schmidt: Judenbilder. Kulturgeschichte antijüdischer Mythen und antisemitischer Vorurteile, Reinbek b. Hamburg 1991.
-       Schäfer, Julia: Vermessen - gezeichnet - verlacht. Judenbilder in populären Zeitschriften 1918-1933, Frankfurt a. M., New York 2005.
-       Schöner, Petra: Judenbilder im deutschen Einblattdruck der Renaissance. Ein Beitrag zur Imagologie, Saecula Spiritalia, Bd. 42, Baden-Baden 2002.
-       Trachtenberg, Joshua: The Devil and the Jews. The Medieval Conception of the Jew and its Relation to Modern Antisemitism, New Haven, London 1943.