The Use of Aesthetic Prejudice as a Dreadful Tool of the Jew Stigmatization
Type de matériel :
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This article examines in what way the “aesthetic dimension” of anti-Semitism was organized from the 19th century to the first half of 20th century. It aims at showing how the creation of a degrading representation of Jew, with anti-semitic posters, drawings and texts, was used as a support for all the other negative considerations and how physical ugliness, or at least what is considered as such to represent one other unworthiness, was used as a tool with the intention of profoundly marking consciousness. This analysis aims to establish from which elements a stigmatizing reading worked “as index and proof of a intrinsically revolting Jewish identity” (Taguieff, 2008, p. 213). However, considering the very significant number of studies devoted to anti-Semitism, one can wonder to what extent this research may generate any other contribution. Though, this interrogation does not seem vain if it is considered that appearance stigmatization was too often “underestimated to the benefit of its politics and religious dimensions” (Taguieff, 2008, p. 213) and that historians, sociologists and philosophers granted only a very few interest to the demeaning representation of Jew.
Réseaux sociaux