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Anti-Semitism - Reply and other comments: Anti-Semitism is a vexing question when it is applied to attitudes prior to WWII. The Catholic church, not prone to admit past policy errors, has announced penitential days for its errors, one of which was the Spanish Inquisition. The horror of the holocaust is a watershed of moral change for most of us. Foibles now appear as transgressions. Joyce saw anti-Semitism as a sign of stupidity and moral insensitivity but in the early draft if the Cyclops section it was Stephen Dedalus who impugned Bloom's claim of membership in the Irish polity and Joyce believed in the doctrine - as he believed more or less in all popular Catholic beliefs and practices - in the essential depravity of the Jews in general because of the Jewish participation in the crucifixion of Jesus. This was on one level. On another he found greater comfort in the friendship of Jews than of gentiles and identified himself with the Jews as outcasts and preservers of culture. During the early stages of the Nazi horror he helped Jews escape from the Nazi menace. Which is no more than to say that he was a difficult and complex person about whom complete consistency is impossible to predicate. It is possible, if one takes extreme positions, to make him out as one thing rather than another but the truth is more interesting and incredibly various. Bob Without the text in front of me, my impression was that Joyce gets his English characters like Mr. Deasy and also Haines to make anti-semitic remarks, while Steven himself talks about "the horn of a bull, hoof of a horse, smile of a Saxon"; elsewhere he also comapres the Saxon's smile (I think) to the bite of a cobra. Mr.Deasy, of course, offers the theory that Jews were never persecuted in Ireland because she did not let them in in their first place. The editors of "Ulysses Annotated have this to say on that point: "There is no evidence that Ireland 'never let them in' and considerable evidence to the contrary, including various legislative attempts to provide civil rights for Jews, which were finally successful in the course of the nineteenth century..." It is important to remember that the 'hero' of the book is Leopold Bloom, himself of Jewish origin, who regards himself Irish as well as Jewish (as will see in his exchange with the First Citizen later in the pub scene, an outsider, a bit of an exile, not part of mainstream Europe or Britain). I think Anthony Burgess (one of the few British literary figures who admired and appreciated Joyce's genius) made a point somewhere about the choice of Bloom as the protagonist. Of course, Joyce himself continually experienced the fact of being in exile in Europe. It is interesting to observe that although Joyce rejected nationalism or any atavistic return to Irish language and culture, he is (I think) sarcastic about Haines talk of 'it seems history is to be blamed' for the plight of the Irish or his basic sympathy with Parnell. There is no question Joyce, like every Irishman, is fully conscious of the British exploitation and plunder of Ireland. I happen to be currently very interested in the treatment of a Jewish character by the major icon of English literature, Shakespeare himself. The portrayal of Shylock is absolutely racist, however simplistic that may seem a thing to say to some on this list. Contrast that with the treatment of a Jewish character by enother major literary figure of modern times, James Joyce. In this context, it is intriguing to think about Steven's theory about Shakespeare being cuckolded by his brothers and Joyce's apparent lack of reverence for the bard, as against the great deal of hostilty Joyce faces to this day from the English literary establishment, People like Virginia Woolf compared Ulysses to a page boy scratching his pimples, and so forth. It will be interesting to hear other view on this whole subject. -- Rasik Shah |