04734nam 2200781 a 450 991045526000332120200520144314.01-282-15778-797866121577831-4008-2525-310.1515/9781400825257(CKB)1000000000788444(EBL)457784(OCoLC)436046194(SSID)ssj0000109472(PQKBManifestationID)11125209(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000109472(PQKBWorkID)10047233(PQKB)10387961(MiAaPQ)EBC457784(MdBmJHUP)muse36145(DE-B1597)446429(OCoLC)979629192(OCoLC)984688352(DE-B1597)9781400825257(Au-PeEL)EBL457784(CaPaEBR)ebr10312596(CaONFJC)MIL215778(EXLCZ)99100000000078844420011016d2002 uy 0engur|n|---|||||txtccrBeautiful death[electronic resource] Jewish poetry and martyrdom in medieval France /Susan L. EinbinderCourse BookPrinceton, N.J. Princeton University Pressc20021 online resource (232 p.)Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the ancient to the modern worldDescription based upon print version of record.0-691-09053-X Includes bibliographical references (p. [189]-209) and index. Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- INTRODUCTION: The Medieval Poetry of Jewish Martyrdom -- ONE. Faith and Fury: Medieval Jewish Martyrological Poetry and Resistance to Conversion -- TWO. "The Fire Does Not Burn": The Emergence of a Martyrological Motif -- THREE. Burning Jewish Books -- FOUR. Wheels within Wheels: Literature, History, and Methodology -- FIVE. Une Bele Qedushah: Troyes 1288 -- SIX. Jonathan and His Magic Book: Paris 1290 -- Epilogue -- Bibliography -- IndexWhen Crusader armies on their way to the Holy Land attacked Jewish communities in the Rhine Valley, many Jews chose suicide over death at the hands of Christian mobs. With their defiant deaths, the medieval Jewish martyr was born. With the literary commemoration of the victims, Jewish martyrology followed. Beautiful Death examines the evolution of a long-neglected corpus of Hebrew poetry, the laments reflecting the specific conditions of Jewish life in northern France. The poems offer insight into everyday life and into the ways medieval French Jews responded to persecution. They also suggest that poetry was used to encourage resistance to intensifying pressures to convert. The educated Jewish elite in northern France was highly acculturated. Their poetry--particularly that emerging from the innovative Tosafist schools--reflects their engagement with the vernacular renaissance unfolding around them, as well as conscious and unconscious absorption of Christian popular beliefs and hagiographical conventions. At the same time, their extraordinary poems signal an increasingly harsh repudiation of Christianity's sacred symbols and beliefs. They reveal a complex relationship to Christian culture as Jews internalized elements of medieval culture even while expressing a powerful revulsion against the forms and beliefs of Christian life. This gracefully written study crosses traditional boundaries of history and literature and of Jewish and general medieval scholarship. Focusing on specific incidents of persecution and the literary commemorations they produced, it offers unique insights into the historical conditions in which these poems were written and performed.Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the ancient to the modern world.Hebrew literature, MedievalFrance, NorthernHistory and criticismMartyrdom in literatureMartyrdomJudaismJudaismFrance, NorthernHistoryTo 1500JewsFrance, NorthernHistoryTo 1500JewsPersecutionsFrance, NorthernElectronic books.Hebrew literature, MedievalHistory and criticism.Martyrdom in literature.MartyrdomJudaism.JudaismHistoryJewsHistoryJewsPersecutions892.4/0938296Einbinder Susan L.1954-1043473MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910455260003321Beautiful death2468471UNINA