First performed by Shakespeare’s rivals in the 1590s, Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta was a trend-setting, innovative play whose black comedy and final tragic irony illuminate the darker regions of the Elizabethan cultural imagination. Although Jews were banished from England in 1291, the Jew in the form of Barabas, the play’s protagonist, returns on the stage to embody and to challenge the dramatic and cultural anti-Semitic stereotypes out of which he is constructed. The result is a theatrically sophisticated but deeply unsettling play whose rich cultural significance extends beyond the early modern period to the present day. The introduction and historical documents in this edition provide a rich context for the world of the play’s composition and production, including materials on Jewishness and anti-Semitism, the political struggles over Malta, and Christopher Marlowe’s personal and political reputation.

In the hopes of promoting justice, peace, and solidarity for and with the Palestinian people, Udi Aloni joins with Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou, and Judith Butler to confront the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Their bold question: Will a new generation of Israelis and Palestinians dare to walk together toward a joint Israel-Palestine? Through a collage of meditation, interview, diary, and essay, Aloni and his interlocutors present a personal, intellectual, and altogether provocative account rich with the insights of philosophy and critical theory. They ultimately foresee the emergence of a binational Israeli-Palestinian state, incorporating the work of Walter Benjamin, Edward Said, and Jewish theology to recast the conflict in secular theological terms.

Not since Anna Diamant’s The Red Tent or Geraldine Brooks’s People of the Book has a novel transported readers so intimately into the complex lives of women centuries ago or so richly into a story of intrigue that transcends the boundaries of history. A “lavishly detailed” (Elle Canada) debut that masterfully captures sixteenth-century Venice against a dramatic and poetic tale of suspense. Hannah Levi is renowned throughout Venice for her gift at coaxing reluctant babies from their mothers using her secret “birthing spoons.” When a count implores her to attend his dying wife and save their unborn son, she is torn. A Papal edict forbids Jews from rendering medical treatment to Christians, but his payment is enough to ransom her husband Isaac, who has been captured at sea. Can she refuse her duty to a woman who is suffering? Hannah’s choice entangles her in a treacherous family rivalry that endangers the child and threatens her voyage to Malta, where Isaac, believing her dead in the plague, is preparing to buy his passage to a new life. Told with exceptional skill, The Midwife of Venice brings to life a time and a place cloaked in fascination and mystery and introduces a captivating new talent in historical fiction.

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 2,0, National University of Ireland, Galway, language: English, abstract: Barabas is a very rich but never as a citizen of Malta accepted Jew, who is hated for being rich and for being a Jew. He therefore is more or less alienated from Malta’s Christian society although he is quite important for the people. Barabas, however, seems to accept his social position; in fact, he even prefers to be hated, but rich, successful, and Jewish instead of being "pitied in a Christian poverty." At the beginning of the play, Barabas is displayed as a wealthy and shrewd but also very selfish and intelligent man, whose motivation is money only. During the story Barabas undergoes a change of personality and presents his evilness more and more.

In post-1917 Russian and Yiddish literature, films, and reportage, Sasha Senderovich finds a new cultural figure: the Soviet Jew. Suddenly mobile after more than a century of restrictions under the tsars, Jewish authors created characters who traversed space and history, carrying with them the dislodged practices and archetypes of a lost world.

The definitive biography: a masterly account of Marlowe's work and life and the world in which he lived Shakespeare's contemporary, Christopher Marlowe revolutionized English drama and poetry, transforming the Elizabethan stage into a place of astonishing creativity. The outline of Marlowe's life, work, and violent death are known, but few of the details that explain why his writing and ideas made him such a provocateur in the Elizabethan era have been available until now. In this absorbing consideration of Marlowe and his times, David Riggs presents Marlowe as the language's first poetic dramatist whose desires proved his undoing. In an age of tremendous cultural change in Europe when Cervantes wrote the first novel and Copernicus demonstrated a world subservient to other nonreligious forces, Catholics and Protestants battled for control of England and Elizabeth's crown was anything but secure. Into this whirlwind of change stepped Marlowe espousing sexual freedom and atheism. His beliefs proved too dangerous to those in power and he was condemned as a spy and later murdered. In The World of Christopher Marlowe, Riggs's exhaustive research digs deeply into the mystery of how and why Marlowe was killed.

This book explores responses to The Merchant of Venice by Jewish writers, critics, theater artists, thinkers, religious leaders and institutions.

Set in Malta, a European island off the coast of Italy, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe follows a rich Jewish merchant, Barabas, who enjoys the privileges that his wealth allows. When the governor of Malta, Ferneze, summons Barabas to his office, Barabas is intrigued and complies immediately. However, when the governor tells Barabas of a deal he is keeping with the Turks, Barabas is appalled. Ferneze demands that Barabas gives up half of his wealth in order to help the government pay tribute to the Turks, but the merchant refuses to cooperate, protesting the injustice. Filled with anger, Ferneze then decides to seize all of Barabas’ assets, including his home. Unable to dispute the decision, Barabas leaves to begin plotting his revenge. First, he is determined to recover the treasure he has hidden around his home, which Ferneze turned into a convent to mock Barabas’ own religious beliefs. After his plan to steal back some of the hidden fortune in his house is successful, Barabas begins to enact his revenge. Using his daughter as a pawn, Barabas promises to marry her to two men. As Barabas continues his cunning scheme to harm Ferneze, a chain of tragedies ensues, involving manipulation, murder, and even the threat of war. Christopher Marlowe’s The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta was an immediate success following its first performance in 1592. Compelled by the drama, characterization and the complex themes of religion, class, capitalism, and prejudice, audiences have been invested in Marlowe’s tragedy for centuries. This edition of The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe is now presented in an easy-to-read font and features a striking new cover decision, creating an accessible reading experience. With these accommodations, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta is restored to modern standards while the original genius and vivid imagery of Marlowe’s work is preserved.

A history of the Jews in the Greek age, charting issues of stability and change in Jewish society during a period that ranges from the conquest of Palestine by Alexander the Great in the fourth century, until approximately 175 B.C.E. and the revolt of the Maccabees.