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An Early Self: Jewish Belonging in Romance Literature, 1499–1627

An Early Self: Jewish Belonging in Romance Literature, 1499–1627 DOI 10.1215/00104124-3631629 An Early Self: Jewish Belonging in Romance Literature, 1499­1627. By Susanne Zepp. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2014. 261 p. In An Early Self: Jewish Belonging in Romance Literature, 1499­1627, Susanne Zepp presents a study of five early modern texts: Fernando de Rojas's La Celestina, Leone Ebreo's Dialoghi d'amore, El Lazarillo de Tormes (Anonymous), Michel de Montaigne's Essais, and the poetry of João Pinto Delgado. Zepp proposes that each text offers a particular perspective on the Jewish experience in the early modern period and thus contributes in significant ways to our understanding of the modernization of the self. Her thesis avers that because Jews had to confront the question of identity earlier than other ethnic groups in Europe, "the early modern subjective consciousness can -- at least in significant part -- also be explained as a universalization of Jewish experiences" (1­2). Zepp does not base her interpretation of the texts on a study of each author's Jewish ancestry -- an approach she vigorously argues against -- but rather sees each text's Jewish perspective as born out of its engagement with the sacred. By finding intertextual influences, she avoids the search for an author's religious identity via textual http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

An Early Self: Jewish Belonging in Romance Literature, 1499–1627

Quinn, Mary B.
Comparative Literature , Volume 68 (3) – Sep 1, 2016
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Duke University Press
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Copyright © Duke Univ Press
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0010-4124
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1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/00104124-3631639
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Abstract

DOI 10.1215/00104124-3631629 An Early Self: Jewish Belonging in Romance Literature, 1499­1627. By Susanne Zepp. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2014. 261 p. In An Early Self: Jewish Belonging in Romance Literature, 1499­1627, Susanne Zepp presents a study of five early modern texts: Fernando de Rojas's La Celestina, Leone Ebreo's Dialoghi d'amore, El Lazarillo de Tormes (Anonymous), Michel de Montaigne's Essais, and the poetry of João Pinto Delgado. Zepp proposes that each text offers a particular perspective on the Jewish experience in the early modern period and thus contributes in significant ways to our understanding of the modernization of the self. Her thesis avers that because Jews had to confront the question of identity earlier than other ethnic groups in Europe, "the early modern subjective consciousness can -- at least in significant part -- also be explained as a universalization of Jewish experiences" (1­2). Zepp does not base her interpretation of the texts on a study of each author's Jewish ancestry -- an approach she vigorously argues against -- but rather sees each text's Jewish perspective as born out of its engagement with the sacred. By finding intertextual influences, she avoids the search for an author's religious identity via textual

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Comparative Literature – Duke University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2016

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