Shakespeare and the Jews
Hosted By: Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program ("CSP")
In his talk Shaul Bassi, professor of English literature at Ca’Foscari University of Venice, compares the historical facts of the Ghetto of Venice, the place where a cosmopolitan Jewish community has lived since 1516, with the fiction created by William Shakespeare in The Merchant in Venice.
What are the differences and similarities between Shylock and the real Jewish moneylenders who settled in Venice in the early sixteenth century? What can we learn about this famous play by looking at the Ghetto, and what can literary representations (from Shakespeare to the present day) teach us about the place that has contributed the word ‘Ghetto’ to the global vocabulary?
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