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Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora

Queen of the Conversas

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Emily Colbert Cairns

    1. Salve Regina University , Newport, USA

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  • Interdisciplinary: biblical, historical, and gender studies

  • First comparative study of Esther texts form this period

  • Builds on studies of Esther texts from other times and places

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Introduction

    • Emily Colbert Cairns
    Pages 1-20

  3. Esther in Iberia & Constructing a Catholic Nation upon the Judeo-Christian Model

    • Emily Colbert Cairns
    Pages 21-59

  4. A Jewish Heroine in Early Modern Spain

    • Emily Colbert Cairns
    Pages 61-118

  5. Esther in the Portuguese Nation

    • Emily Colbert Cairns
    Pages 119-145

  6. Sisters in the Law of Moses

    • Emily Colbert Cairns
    Pages 147-168

  7. Conclusion

    • Emily Colbert Cairns
    Pages 169-171

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 173-189
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores Queen Esther as an idealized woman in Iberia, as well as a Jewish heroine for conversos in the Sephardic Diaspora in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The biblical Esther --the Jewish woman who marries the King of Persia and saves her people -- was contested in the cultures of early modern Europe, authored as a symbol of conformity as well as resistance. At once a queen and minority figure under threat, for a changing Iberian and broader European landscape, Esther was compelling and relatable precisely because of her hybridity. She was an early modern globetrotter and border transgressor. Emily Colbert Cairns analyzes the many retellings of the biblical heroine that were composed in a turbulent early modern Europe. These narratives reveal national undercurrents where religious identity was transitional and fluid, thus problematizing the fixed notion of national identity within a particular geographic location. This volume instead proposes a model of a Sephardic nationality that existed beyond geographical borders.

Reviews

“Real success with this book is in the conception of the project, her selection of primary sources, and her close readings of the sources. ... Colbert Cairns has given us an originally conceived, timely, and insightful study of a novel combination of sources, painting us a vivid picture of the Iberian and American imaginary of Esther, an important cultural icon around which crystallize issues of gender, sovereignty, and religious authority. Her reading of the sources is innovative and thought-provoking.” (David Wacks, Bulletin of the Comediantes, Vol. 70 (2), 2018)

“In Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora: Queen of the Conversas, Emily Colbert Cairns advances the field of converso studies by providing a groundbreaking exploration of a variety of European and American literary texts from the 16th through the 18th centuries that depict Queen Esther. As a complement to her insightful literary analysis, Professor Colbert Cairns also considers the importance of Esther in the plastic arts, which is a new line of converso-related research by which Colbert Cairns reaches pioneering conclusions regarding the intersection between contemporary literature and art history.” (Gregory B. Kaplan, Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, University of Tennessee, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Salve Regina University , Newport, USA

    Emily Colbert Cairns

About the author

Emily Colbert Cairns is an Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Salve Regina University. She has published on converso and crypto-Jewish identity in the early modern period in eHumanista, Chasqui, Cervantes Journal, and Hispanófila.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora

  • Book Subtitle: Queen of the Conversas

  • Authors: Emily Colbert Cairns

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57867-5

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-57866-8Published: 26 July 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-86270-5Published: 02 August 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-57867-5Published: 13 July 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 189

  • Number of Illustrations: 11 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Jewish Cultural Studies, History of Early Modern Europe

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