070110 UE Guided Reading Medieval History - Medieval Anti-Judaism and Jewish Self-Assertion (2021W)

The aim of this course is the knowledge of the fundamental anti-Jewish topoi and stereotypes and their (mostly) religious origin and historical contextualization on the one hand, and religious and cultural resilience strategies on the other. This is done by analyzing different types of sources using the methods of cultural studies, gender studies and questions of resilience research. Furthermore, the continuities of these attributions, codes and images are examined.
The geographical area is the medieval cultural area "Ashkenaz", i.e. the German-speaking areas of the Old German Empire with a Jewish population.
By analysing sources like tractates, sermons, expulsion documents and Passion plays
the seminary will present basic anti-Jewish Topoi. In contrast, Hebrew sources (in translation), pictures and material objects will give insight to religion and culture as strategies of Jewish self-assertion. Geographically it will cover the cultural space ,Ashkenaz’, the German speaking parts of the Holy Roman Empire with Jewish population.
The learning units consist of an introduction to the respective topic and the reading and discussion of the prepared texts (original, transcription and translation). These texts made available on Moodle are excerpted in five tasks.