The Marrano Phenomenon

The Marrano Phenomenon PDF Author: Agata Bielik-Robson
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 303897904X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
What we call here the ‘Marrano phenomenon’ is still a relatively unexplored fact of modern Western culture: the presence of the borderline Jewish identity which avoids clear-cut cultural and religious attribution, but nevertheless exerts significant influence on modern humanities. Our aim, however, is not a historical study of the Marranos (or conversos), i.e., the mostly Spanish and Portguese Jews of the 15th and 16th centuries, who were forced to convert to Christianity, but were suspected of retaining their Judaism ‘undercover’: such an approach already exists and has been developed within the field of historical research. We rather want to apply the ‘Marrano metaphor’ to explore the fruitful area of mixture and crossover which allowed modern thinkers, writers, and artists of the Jewish origin to enter the realm of universal communication—without, at the same time, making them relinquish their Jewishness, which they subsequently developed as a ‘hidden tradition’. What is of special interest to us is the modern development of the non-normative forms of religious thinking located on the borderline between Christianity and Judaism, from Spinoza to Derrida.

The Marrano Phenomenon

The Marrano Phenomenon PDF Author: Agata Bielik-Robson
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 303897904X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
What we call here the ‘Marrano phenomenon’ is still a relatively unexplored fact of modern Western culture: the presence of the borderline Jewish identity which avoids clear-cut cultural and religious attribution, but nevertheless exerts significant influence on modern humanities. Our aim, however, is not a historical study of the Marranos (or conversos), i.e., the mostly Spanish and Portguese Jews of the 15th and 16th centuries, who were forced to convert to Christianity, but were suspected of retaining their Judaism ‘undercover’: such an approach already exists and has been developed within the field of historical research. We rather want to apply the ‘Marrano metaphor’ to explore the fruitful area of mixture and crossover which allowed modern thinkers, writers, and artists of the Jewish origin to enter the realm of universal communication—without, at the same time, making them relinquish their Jewishness, which they subsequently developed as a ‘hidden tradition’. What is of special interest to us is the modern development of the non-normative forms of religious thinking located on the borderline between Christianity and Judaism, from Spinoza to Derrida.

The Marrano Way

The Marrano Way PDF Author: Agata Bielik-Robson
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110768348
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
The Marrano phenomenon is a still unexplored element of Western culture: the presence of the borderline Jewish identity which avoids clear-cut cultural and religious attribution and – precisely as such – prefigures the advent of the typically modern "free-oscillating" subjectivity. Yet, the aim of the book is not a historical study of the Marranos (or conversos), who were forced to convert to Christianity, but were suspected of retaining their Judaism "undercover." The book rather applies the "Marrano metaphor" to explore the fruitful area of mixture and cross-over which allowed modern thinkers, writers and artists of the Jewish origin to enter the realm of universal communication – without, at the same time, making them relinquish their Jewishness which they subsequently developed as a "hidden tradition." The book poses and then attempts to prove the "Marrano hypothesis," according to which modern subjectivity derives, to paraphrase Cohen, "out of the sources of the hidden Judaism": modernity begins not with the Cartesian abstract ego, but with the rich self-reflexive self of Michel de Montaigne who wrestled with his own marranismo in a manner that soon became paradigmatic to other Jewish thinkers entering the scene of Western modernity, from Spinoza to Derrida. The essays in the volume offer thus a new view of a "Marrano modernity," which aims to radically transform our approach to the genesis of the modern subject and shed a new light on its secret religious life as surviving the process of secularization, although merely in the form of secret traces.

Jewish Cryptotheologies of Late Modernity

Jewish Cryptotheologies of Late Modernity PDF Author: Agata Bielik-Robson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317684508
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
This book aims to interpret ‘Jewish Philosophy’ in terms of the Marrano phenomenon: as a conscious clinamen of philosophical forms used in order to convey a ‘secret message’ which cannot find an open articulation. The Marrano phenomenon is employed here, in the domain of modern philosophical thought, where an analogous tendency can be seen: the clash of an open idiom and a secret meaning, which transforms both the medium and the message. Focussing on key figures of late modern, twentieth century Jewish thought; Hermann Cohen, Gershom Scholem, Walter Benjamin, Franz Rosenzweig, Theodor Adorno, Ernst Bloch, Jacob Taubes, Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, this book demonstrates how their respective manners of conceptualization swerve from the philosophical mainstream along the Marrano ‘secret curve.’ Analysing their unique contribution to the ‘unfinished project of modernity,’ including issues of the future of the Enlightenment, modern nihilism and post-secular negotiation with religious heritage, this book will be essential reading for students and researchers with an interest in Jewish Studies and Philosophy.

The Marrano Factory

The Marrano Factory PDF Author: António José Saraiva
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004120808
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
First published in Portuguese in 1969, this is the only work by Antonio Jose Saraiva available in English and the only single-volume history devoted primarily to the working of the Portuguese Inquisition, a most lucid and compact survey. "The Marrano Factory" argues that the Portuguese Inquisition s stated intention of extirpating heresies and purifying Portuguese Catholicism was a monumental hoax; the true purpose of the Holy Office was the fabrication rather than the destruction of "Judaizers."

The Other Within

The Other Within PDF Author: Yirmiyahu Yovel
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069118786X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 509

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Book Description
The Marranos were former Jews forced to convert to Christianity in Spain and Portugal, and their later descendents. Despite economic and some political advancement, these "Conversos" suffered social stigma and were persecuted by the Inquisition. In this unconventional history, Yirmiyahu Yovel tells their fascinating story and reflects on what it means for modern forms of identity. He describes the Marranos as "the Other within"—people who both did and did not belong. Rejected by most Jews as renegades and by most veteran Christians as Jews with impure blood, Marranos had no definite, integral identity, Yovel argues. The "Judaizers"—Marranos who wished to remain secretly Jewish—were not actually Jews, and those Marranos who wished to assimilate were not truly integrated as Hispano-Catholics. Rather, mixing Jewish and Christian symbols and life patterns, Marranos were typically distinguished by a split identity. They also discovered the subjective mind, engaged in social and religious dissent, and demonstrated early signs of secularity and this-worldliness. In these ways, Yovel says, the Marranos anticipated and possibly helped create many central features of modern Western and Jewish experience. One of Yovel's philosophical conclusions is that split identity—which the Inquisition persecuted and modern nationalism considers illicit—is a genuine and inevitable shape of human existence, one that deserves recognition as a basic human freedom. Drawing on historical studies, Inquisition records, and contemporary poems, novels, treatises, and other writings, this engaging critical history of the Marrano experience is also a profound meditation on dual identities and the birth of modernity.

Derrida's Marrano Passover

Derrida's Marrano Passover PDF Author: Agata Bielik-Robson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501392638
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
In this first ever monograph on Jacques Derrida's 'Toledo confession' – where he portrayed himself as 'sort of a Marrano of the French Catholic culture' – Agata Bielik-Robson shows Derrida's marranismo to be a literary experiment of auto-fiction. She looks at all possible aspects of Derrida's Marrano identification in order to demonstrate that it ultimately constitutes a trope of non-identitarian evasion that permeates all his works: just as Marranos cannot be characterized as either Jewish or Christian, so is Derrida's 'universal Marranism' an invitation to think philosophically, politically and – last but not least – metaphysically without rigid categories of identity and belonging. By concentrating on Derrida's deliberate choice of marranismo, Bielik-Robson shows that it penetrates deep into the very core of his late thinking, constantly drawing on the literary works of Kafka, Celan, Joyce, Cixous and Valéry, and throws a new light on his early works, most of all: Of Grammatology, Dissemination and 'Différance'. She also offers a completely new interpretation of many of Derrida's works only seemingly non-related to the Marrano issue, like Glas, Given Time: Counterfeit Money, Death Penalty Seminar, and Specters of Marx. In these new readings, this book demonstrates that the Marrano Derrida is not a marginal auto-biographical figure overshadowed by Derrida the Philosopher: it is one and the same thinker who discovered marranismo as a literary trope of openness, offering up a new genre of philosophical story-telling which centers around Derrida's Marrano 'auto-fable'.

Understanding Jewish History

Understanding Jewish History PDF Author: Steven Bayme
Publisher: KTAV Publishing House, Inc.
ISBN: 9780881255546
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description


The Non-Jewish Origins of the Sephardic Jews

The Non-Jewish Origins of the Sephardic Jews PDF Author: Paul Wexler
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 9781438423937
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
The author uses linguistic, ethnographic, and historical evidence to support his theory that the origins of Sephardic Jews are predominantly Berber and Arab.

Unorthodox Kin

Unorthodox Kin PDF Author: Naomi Leite
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520960645
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Stirling Prize for Best Book in Psychological Anthropology, 2018 Graburn Award for Best Book in Anthropology of Tourism, 2018 Douglass Prize for Best Book in the Anthropology of Europe, Honorable Mention, 2018 National Jewish Book Award, Finalist, 2017 Unortho­dox Kin is a ground­break­ing explo­ration of iden­ti­ty, relat­ed­ness, and belong­ing in a glob­al era. In urban Por­tu­gal today, hun­dreds of indi­vid­u­als trace their ances­try to 15th cen­tu­ry Jews forcibly con­vert­ed to Catholi­cism, and many now seek to rejoin the Jew­ish peo­ple as a whole. For the most part, how­ev­er, these self-titled Mar­ra­nos (“hid­den Jews”) lack any direct expe­ri­ence of Jews or Judaism, and Por­tu­gal’s tiny, tight­ly knit Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty offers no clear path of entry. Accord­ing to Jew­ish law, to be rec­og­nized as a Jew one must be born to a Jew­ish moth­er or pur­sue reli­gious con­ver­sion, an anath­e­ma to those who feel their ances­tors’ Judaism was cru­el­ly stolen from them. After cen­turies of famil­ial Catholi­cism, and hav­ing been refused inclu­sion local­ly, how will these self-declared ances­tral Jews find belong­ing among ​“the Jew­ish fam­i­ly,” writ large? How, that is, can peo­ple reject­ed as strangers face-to-face become mem­bers of a glob­al imag­ined com­mu­ni­ty—not only rhetor­i­cal­ly, but experientially? Leite address­es this ques­tion through inti­mate por­traits of the lives and expe­ri­ences of a net­work of urban Mar­ra­nos who sought con­tact with for­eign Jew­ish tourists and out­reach work­ers as a means of gain­ing edu­ca­tion­al and moral sup­port in their quest. Explor­ing mutu­al imag­in­ings and direct encoun­ters between Mar­ra­nos, Por­tuguese Jews, and for­eign Jew­ish vis­i­tors, Unortho­dox Kin deft­ly tracks how visions of self and kin evolve over time and across social spaces, end­ing in an unex­pect­ed path to belong­ing. In the process, the analy­sis weaves togeth­er a diverse set of cur­rent anthro­po­log­i­cal themes, from inter­sub­jec­tiv­i­ty to inter­na­tion­al tourism, class struc­tures to the con­struc­tion of iden­ti­ty, cul­tur­al log­ics of relat­ed­ness to tran­scul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion. A com­pelling evo­ca­tion of how ideas of ances­try shape the present, how feel­ings of kin­ship arise among far-flung strangers, and how some find mys­ti­cal con­nec­tion in a world said to be dis­en­chant­ed, Unortho­dox Kin is a mod­el study for anthro­pol­o­gy today. This acclaimed book will appeal to a wide audi­ence inter­est­ed in anthro­pol­o­gy, soci­ol­o­gy, and reli­gious stud­ies. Its acces­si­ble, nar­ra­tive-dri­ven style makes it espe­cial­ly well-suit­ed for intro­duc­to­ry and advanced cours­es in gen­er­al cul­tur­al anthro­pol­o­gy, ethnog­ra­phy, the­o­ries of iden­ti­ty and social cat­e­go­riza­tion, and the study of glob­al­iza­tion, kin­ship, tourism, and religion.

The Marranos of Spain

The Marranos of Spain PDF Author: Benzion Netanyahu
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801485688
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Analyzes the degree of assimilation of the Spanish Conversos based on Jewish perceptions as reflected in responsa and in polemical and exegetical Jewish literature of the time (1391-1481). Rejects the present-day view that many Conversos were Judaizers, arguing that, on the contrary, most of them were at different stages of assimilation and Christianization and were even tinged with anti-Judaism. Stresses that in fact the majority of the Spanish Jewish community converted (forcibly or not), and the remaining Jews, a minority, felt uncertainty as to the Jewishness of the Conversos, considering as a crypto-Jew (or "anuss") only a Converso who respected Jewish precepts in private and who tried to leave Spain in order to return to Judaism. The fact that most Conversos did neither shows that most of them abandoned Judaism, and that the Inquisition's persecution campaign was held not on religious but on racial and political grounds, meant to destroy a successfully competing social group.