Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora
Queen of the Conversas
Authors: Colbert Cairns, Emily
Free Preview- 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
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- About this book
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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.
- About the authors
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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.
- Reviews
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“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)
- Table of contents (6 chapters)
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Introduction
Pages 1-20
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Esther in Iberia & Constructing a Catholic Nation upon the Judeo-Christian Model
Pages 21-59
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A Jewish Heroine in Early Modern Spain
Pages 61-118
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Esther in the Portuguese Nation
Pages 119-145
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Sisters in the Law of Moses
Pages 147-168
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora
- Book Subtitle
- Queen of the Conversas
- Authors
-
- Emily Colbert Cairns
- Copyright
- 2017
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Copyright Holder
- The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-319-57867-5
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-319-57867-5
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-319-57866-8
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-3-319-86270-5
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XI, 189
- Number of Illustrations
- 11 illustrations in colour
- Topics
