{"id":3352,"date":"2016-08-02T21:02:51","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T19:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moked.it\/international\/?p=3352"},"modified":"2016-08-02T21:02:51","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T19:02:51","slug":"venice-and-the-ghetto-vexing-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moked.it\/international\/2016\/08\/02\/venice-and-the-ghetto-vexing-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"VENICE AND THE GHETTO Vexing Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/moked.it\/international\/files\/2016\/08\/merchant-by-Giovanni-Montenero-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/moked.it\/international\/files\/2016\/08\/merchant-by-Giovanni-Montenero-2-300x200.png\" alt=\"merchant by Giovanni Montenero 2\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3355\" srcset=\"https:\/\/moked.it\/international\/files\/2016\/08\/merchant-by-Giovanni-Montenero-2-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/moked.it\/international\/files\/2016\/08\/merchant-by-Giovanni-Montenero-2.png 718w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>By <strong>James Shapiro*<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Four centuries after it was written and first staged, <em>The Merchant of Venice<\/em> continues to cast a long shadow. It is a deeply enigmatic work of art, raising many more questions than it answers. Is the disguised Portia\u2019s question upon entering the courtroom\u2014 \u201cWhich is the merchant here, and which the Jew?\u201d\u2014to be taken seriously or intended as a laugh-line? Do we follow the 1623 Folio text when Gobbo says of Jessica that \u201cIf a Christian do not play the knave and get thee, I am much deceived,\u201d or the text of the 1632 Folio, where that \u201cdo\u201d is altered to \u201cdid\u201d (a reading preferred by many modern editors, one that suggests that Shylock has been cuckolded and Jessica\u2019s real father was a Christian)? Is Portia a racist for saying of her unsuccessful wooer, a dark-skinned and Muslim Moroccan prince, \u201cLet all of his complexion choose me so\u201d? Is Antonio \u201cso sad\u201d because of his financial worries or because his unsanctioned love for Bassanio is unrequited? Is the play troubling because its portrayal of Shylock is nakedly anti-Semitic? Or, alternatively, is it so disturbing because it exposes what ugly myths lead those with insecure identities\u2014Gentile or Jew&#8211;to think and do when threatened, and for intimating that hostility to difference of all kinds (racial, national, sexual, or religious) deforms those who are intolerant and coarsens any society that condones it? Each production or rereading of this haunting play challenge us to wrestle yet again with these and many other vexing questions.<\/p>\n<p><em>*James Shapiro a professor at Columbia University. This article was published in the booklet by Ca\u2019 Foscari University of Venice, Compagnia de\u2019 Colombari and Committee for the 500 years of the Ghetto on the occasion of the new production of \u201cThe Merchant of Venice\u201d performed for the first time in the Ghetto. The picture is by Giovanni Montenero<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By James Shapiro* Four centuries after it was written and first staged, The Merchant of Venice continues to cast a long shadow. It is a deeply enigmatic work of art, raising many more questions than it answers. Is the disguised Portia\u2019s question upon entering the courtroom\u2014 \u201cWhich is the merchant here, and which the Jew?\u201d\u2014to&hellip; <a class=\"more\" rel=\"bookmark\" href=\"https:\/\/moked.it\/international\/2016\/08\/02\/venice-and-the-ghetto-vexing-questions\/\">leggi&nbsp;<i class=\"fa fa-chevron-circle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4296,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7602],"tags":[],"position":[],"class_list":["post-3352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senza-categoria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>VENICE AND THE GHETTO Vexing Questions - Pagine Ebraiche International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/moked.it\/international\/2016\/08\/02\/venice-and-the-ghetto-vexing-questions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VENICE AND THE GHETTO Vexing Questions - Pagine Ebraiche International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By James Shapiro* Four centuries after it was written and first staged, The Merchant of Venice continues to cast a long shadow. 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