De excidio et conquestu Britanniae is the title of the most ancient surviving manuscript ever written by a British author about the story of Albion. It was written around 564 C.E. by Gildas, a Welsh clergyman who went down in history as the oldest source of the history of post-Roman Britain. The latter, although it did not host any Jewish communities at the time, is referred to as “the new Israel” in the manuscript, and the battles of this “holy nation” against the “invading barbarians” are compared to the battles of ancient Israel against Babilonians and Philistines. There are quotations from the Old Testament on almost every page of the De Excidio. In Gildas’ eyes the British are the people of Israel of his times. This article investigates the perception of Jews and Jewesses in British Literature from Gildas to George Eliot (1819-1880), assessing how these perceptions affected the modern and contemporary history of Great Britain, Palestine and the Jews.

“Anti-Jewish Philosemitism”: Exploitation of the history of the Jewish People in British Literature

KAMEL, LORENZO
2012

Abstract

De excidio et conquestu Britanniae is the title of the most ancient surviving manuscript ever written by a British author about the story of Albion. It was written around 564 C.E. by Gildas, a Welsh clergyman who went down in history as the oldest source of the history of post-Roman Britain. The latter, although it did not host any Jewish communities at the time, is referred to as “the new Israel” in the manuscript, and the battles of this “holy nation” against the “invading barbarians” are compared to the battles of ancient Israel against Babilonians and Philistines. There are quotations from the Old Testament on almost every page of the De Excidio. In Gildas’ eyes the British are the people of Israel of his times. This article investigates the perception of Jews and Jewesses in British Literature from Gildas to George Eliot (1819-1880), assessing how these perceptions affected the modern and contemporary history of Great Britain, Palestine and the Jews.
2012
Lorenzo Kamel
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/133830
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