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Article
Fictions of Identity: (Re) Imagining the Stories We Tell
Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies
  • Miriamne Ara Krummel, University of Dayton
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-1-2016
Abstract

In Perceptions of Jewish History, Amos Funkenstein argues that Jews are caught in a continuous loop of telling and retelling Jewish history. Taking medieval reimaginings as a starting point, this essay maps this loop as expressing a resistance to temporal erasure by considering modern historical fiction that reimagines Jewish presence in annus domini temporality. In essence, modern Jewish writers populate history with Jewish characters in order to write Jewish presence into the medieval now of Christian time. This essay explores what is involved in balancing the historical record (where Jews are frequently subalterns and often oppressed victims of establishment authority) with a fictionalized history (where utopian visions of the past imagine a Jew who has agency and voice).

Inclusive pages
235-246
ISBN/ISSN
2040-5960
Comments

Permission documentation on file.

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Citation Information
Miriamne Ara Krummel. "Fictions of Identity: (Re) Imagining the Stories We Tell" Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies Vol. 7 Iss. 2 (2016)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/miriamne_krummel/11/