Jews and Christ interchanged : discursive strategies in the Passio Iudeorum Pragensium

Vol.17,No.1(2012)

Evina Steinová

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/118210

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Abstract
"Passio Iudeorum Pragensium", a late fourteenth–century pogrom narrative from Bohemia, provides us with many unique insights into the medieval tradition of pogrom narratives. It is preserved in the form of a number of related but distinct textual units that allow us to examine the discursive nature of texts such as these. This discursiveness is illustrated in this article by the transformations that the narrative material underwent, temporally and spatially, as well as with respect to different language communities and audiences. Furthermore, I discuss some models of relationship between the "Passio" material and the historical reality of a pogrom that led to the formation of this material, as well as to alternative accounts of the event preserved in some of the contemporary chronicles. Most important in this respect are three prosaic texts that seem to fall into the oldest layer of formation of "Passio Iudeorum Pragensium". All three are elaborate compositions which employ traditional modes of narration with distinct new purposes and functions and which voice different, even conflicting perspectives on the significance of pogrom violence and its causes. This is particularly obvious when the representation of bodies – of the massacred Jews as well as of the supposedly desecrated "Corpus Christi" – is contrasted, particularly as the three narratives make a point of blurring the boundaries between the two entities.

Keywords:
Passio Iudeorum Pragensium; Prague pogrom of 1389; pogrom narrative; Host Desecration narrative; textual field; representation of Jews in Medieval Latin texts

Pages:
93–106
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