English Summaries vol. 70 (2021)

Narrative Potency and Narrative Potential of Gags in the Hebrew Bible

Sel lam El Ammari Alonso

UCM

This study examines the narrative development of biblical storytelling through humorous gags. The gag is one of the most important rhetorical resources in the visual and performing arts. It consists of creating distinctive images that try to abruptly go beyond the framework of the narrative plot. While identifying the presence of gags in literature is not a standard approach, the identification fits from a narratological point of view, due to the fact that this art shares the concepts of story, plot and discourse with the other visual arts.

The analysis of certain gag-like scenes and images in the biblical stories, regarding both their narrative and disruptive potential, makes it possible to approach the concept of the comical from another angle and, most importantly, to deal with some of the compositional procedures of biblical narratives. The gag combines a centrifugal and a centripetal power that contributes to the general narrativity. The comicality of a gag may be understood as a way of diverting –of making things diverge– in every respect and at all levels. And perhaps, rather than the laughs it may induce, what is most valued and cherished in comical situations found in narratives are the gag’s –diverging– causal possibilities, dressed up as casualties and incongruities.

The gag is a narrative tool and not a piece of decoration, despite the fact that it may appear apart from its narrative environment as an isolated phenomenon. When viewed as a self-governing unit, and regardless of its comical value, the gag is self-contained and self-explanatory. On the other hand, when viewed amid the full range of actions and events in a story, the gag shares their function: to increase the amount of information that fuels the narrativity.

After the article establishes an operational definition –in that it can be used to describe the narrative function of a gag regardless of its semiotic representation-– several biblical examples demonstrate these arguments. Finally, the study shows that this concept of the narrativity of a gag can sometimes fit into (as well as supplement) the idea of the ‘dramatic irony’ of biblical stories, while testing old conceptions from comedy studies like ‘quid pro quo’ and ‘inversion’.

The Jewish House in Toledo: On Design and Functionality

Arturo Ruiz Taboada

UCM

Jewish archaeology has become a necessary complement to the information contained in written sources, whose analysis is limited to a snapshot of a historic moment, without assessing contexts or questions of diachrony and synchrony. The archaeological study of a medieval dwelling in the Jewish quarter of Toledo has provided an in-depth understanding of its historical transformation.

The Jewish quarter of Toledo contains very few medieval houses, and those that have been preserved are partly fossilized, integrated into later architecture. The decline of this neighbourhood began after the pogrom of 1391, which marked the beginning of Jewish emigration, a process that finished in 1492. In the 16th century, many of the houses were renovated or replaced by others at the request of the new, non-Jewish owners. In other cases, these houses, along with other buildings in the Jewish quarter, were abandoned. This trend allowed for the proliferation of large buildings, such as the hospital of San Juan de Dios, in modern and contemporary times, and created wastelands that would become widened avenues, squares or gardens, such as the current Paseo del Tránsito. The result was a ‘new’ neighbourhood, different from its previous configuration, with depressed or ruined sectors, that renounced its Jewish past and would not regain prominence until it was revitalized in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The archaeological work at the house focused on both the basement and the first floor. It was possible to restore the construction and layout of the long-gone medieval house, and to document an industrial area in its basement, with different brick or excavated rock structures. In addition, the archaeological study of both the materials and the archaeology made it possible to establish when the house was first built in the 14th century, as well as the different reforms the structure underwent throughout its history.

Of the architecture, an octagonal vault located in the centre of the basement is particularly notable. To date, only a limited number of octagonal vaults have been documented in Toledo, a construction, moreover, only found in the Jewish quarter. The exclusivity of the octagonal vault under the courtyard makes it a Jewish index fossil in Toledo. Until now, the only funerary index fossil had been the lucillo, characteristic of a type of tomb closure only found in Jewish settings in cities such as Toledo and Seville.

Jean Passini, who has extensively studied this type of vault, proposes different uses for it, either as a ritual bath or a place of worship related to the final moments of the Jewish presence in the city (i.e. a clandestine synagogue). However, none of these interpretations conforms to what is documented in the archaeological record, most notably the trapezoidal plan in the basement, which may be related to the functionality for which the vaults were conceived. All these data raise the question of whether the small number of vaults with these characteristics and the similarity of their designs is due to the work of a single builder or to a specific use and needs.

Pottery and faunal remains were recovered during the excavation. A fragment of a lamp found in one of the basement structures could be related to a Hanukkah lamp, which had a central stem, with a base or pedestal and, whether or not it was used for ritual purposes, it adds to the debate on these types of ritual objects.

The recovery of the memory of the Jewish quarter requires the well-founded research, management and dissemination of its archaeological record. The houses in the Jewish quarters must be the standard of the new Jewish archaeology. The future of this discipline depends on its theoretical and methodological consolidation, without which a risk is run of falling into approaches typical of so-called ‘invented reality’.

Jews in Diplomacy against North African Privateers: The Case of Judah Cohen

Antoni Picazo Muntaner

UIB

This study develops a methodology that uses analysis and synthesis to address three fundamental objectives: the creation of a brief prosopography of Judah Cohen; an examination of the activities of diplomatic agents from the European powers in North Africa; and an understanding of the influence that Jews had on those agents.

Given the mobility of Judah Cohen, his extensive relationships and the strategic interests of the European powers that acted in North Africa, the documentation used in this study is held in a variety of national archives in the countries that participated in maritime trade in the Mediterranean. These include the National Archives of the Netherlands, which contains valuable information on both Algiers and on Cohen’s diplomatic activities, and the Leiden Archive, also in the Netherlands, which holds some treaties. Additional information is available in the foreign affairs office of the National Archives of France, particularly the important consular series, which contains military, political and social news from the port nodes across the area. Third, some series from the National Archives of the United Kingdom contributed novel information to the study, including perceptions about European economic dynamics both in Africa and the Turkish Levant. Finally, in Spain, the series in the National Historical Archive of Spain on the Inquisition and the General Archive of Simancas on matters of the state provided useful information. In addition, the National Library of Spain holds a variety of sources on Spanish intervention in Oran and cartographies of ports in the Middle East and the Aegean.

These sources reveal the extensive activities and relationships maintained by the important Jewish merchants living in North Africa, like Judah Cohen, who offered the different powers their services to approach and initiate peace talks with the authorities in Algiers. The study also highlights the close relationship between privateering and commerce, to such an extent that the growth of the latter precipitated an increase in the former. For this reason, during the first half of the 18th century, the massive expansion of European trade in the southern Mediterranean and the Levant increased privateering pressure on ships. However, for many Jewish merchants, open warfare harmed their interests and, consequently, their interventions sought to maintain a balance between the parties to facilitate, if not total peace, then at least a relatively peaceful state of affairs.

The Legend of Guzmán the Good: From Medieval Castile to the Sephardic Community of Constantinople in the 19th Century

María Sánchez-Pérez

USAL

The figure of Alonso Pérez de Guzmán (Leon, 1256–Gaucin, Malaga, 1309), better known by the nickname ‘Guzmán el Bueno’ (Guzmán the Good), has been the subject of study in various academic spheres, mainly historical and literary. This article examines the literary side related to the aspects of the life of this member of the house of Medina Sidonia who became legendary, particularly the tale of his defence of Tarifa at the end of the 13th century. The legend, in brief, tells of how Tarifa, a strategic enclave on the Strait of Gibraltar that had been conquered by King Sancho IV of Castile, came under attack in 1294 by the Marinids, who were supported by the Infante Don Juan, the brother of the Castilian monarch. Sancho IV entrusted Alonso Pérez de Guzmán with the defence of Tarifa. In response, the enemies of the Castilian king coerced Guzmán, threatening to kill his youngest son, who had been captured by the Marinids, if he did not surrender the town. The story goes that Guzmán threw a knife from the castle where he was staying, knowing that the enemies would kill his son, rather than submit to the blackmail and hand over the town. From that moment on, the legend of Guzmán the Good began to grow. He became a myth and the subject of numerous literary and musical productions.

This paper surveys these productions in the Castilian literary tradition, from the 16th-19th centuries, before focusing on a text that appeared in a Sephardic newspaper in Constantinople entitled El Amigo de la Famiya (1881-1886) containing a rather extensive account of the legend of Guzmán the Good. This Sephardic-Aljamiado version was transcribed and edited for further study, and an analysis of the text showed that David Fresco, the paper’s editor, had based his adaptation on a work by Joaquín Telesforo Trueba y Cossío (1799-1835), The Romance of History. As this collection of stories had different editions and translations, the analysis of the newspaper article involved comparing the English, French, Spanish and Judeo-Spanish versions. It is known that Fresco translated works from Hebrew, English and French literature into Judeo-Spanish. Although it cannot be determined with any certainty whether he based his adaptation of the legend of Guzmán the Good on the English or French version of Trueba y Cossío’s work, the analysis suggests that the French version was the more likely source, since France played a decisive role in opening up the Sephardic Eastern world beginning in the mid-19th century. Notwithstanding, even without being able to determine the exact source of Fresco’s material, this literary journey reveals part of the process behind the creation and dissemination of this legend, as well as the significant success it enjoyed over the centuries in different countries, cultures and regions of the world.

Religion and Freedom: The Roman Inquisition, the Mortara Affair and the Debate on Natural Rights in the Spanish Press (1858-1860)

Jimena Tcherbbis Testa

UTDT-CONICET

This paper problematizes the relationship between religion and freedom through the circulation of an international media story in the Spanish press: the 1858 kidnapping of a Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, by the Roman Inquisition using the justification that he had been baptized in secret. The affair occurred in a context of increasing theological-political tensions related to the consolidation of ultramontanism and the fact that the process of Italian unification was shaking the temporal power of the pope. The Mortara case provoked reaction from the Alliance Israélite Universelle and Protestant associations across England and the United States, as well as complaints from governments that supported religious freedom.

Although the case has been studied in different contexts, historiography has paid scant attention to the debate surrounding the Mortara case in Spain. The analysis of how the news was received in a kingdom without religious freedom (and that had abolished its own Inquisition decades earlier) opens the way for an inquiry into Catholicism and liberalism along three axes: the temporal power of the papacy; religious intransigence; and the relationship between canon law and natural law. This paper reconstructs the problem by analysing the Spanish press, particularly the media with wide dissemination in Madrid, using a connected perspective to demonstrate the contribution of political-religious controversy to the construction of global public opinion. The paper shows that the affair sparked a debate among the Catholic faithful about the Inquisition, the legitimacy of dissent and the formulation of natural rights free from the tutelage of the pontiff.

In fact, the reaction of the Spanish press was diverse. The neo-Catholic press, such as La Esperanza and La Regeneración, expressed an ultramontane point of view that coexisted with ideas that supported the Carlist dynastic faction. The moderate liberal perspective, connected to the government, appeared in publications such as La España. The democratic press, such as La Discusión, and the liberal progressive press, like La Iberia and El Clamor Público, also played significant roles. Although the government did not pronounce on the Mortara matter and the nuncio ordered that the affair not be discussed, the Spanish press remained interested in the story as it circulated across Europe and participated in the debate, relating it to the country’s own history.

The Spanish press revealed the multiple points of view held by Catholics and liberals regarding the Mortara affair and, therefore, the way in which the relationship between Catholicism and liberalism was seen. The neo-Catholic press, nostalgic for Carlism, highlighted the antagonism between liberalism and Catholicism and adopted an ultramontane position that vindicated the Roman Inquisition, defending the temporal power of the papacy in the face of the advance of Italian unification. Publications such as La Esperanza and La Regeneración also advocated anti-Jewish preaching, characterizing the matter as mere ‘noise’ produced by the heretical press and Jewish bankers. On the other hand, the National-Catholic perspective of moderate liberals proposed to reconcile liberalism with the Spanish confessional state, preserving Catholic unity. They regretted the controversies that arose alongside the Mortara case among Catholic writers.

The progressive and democratic press, on the contrary, wrote that the Mortara case exposed the risk entailed when the spiritual head of the Church was also the head of state. The progressive and democratic liberal press –which did not renounce the acceptance of the Catholic identity of the nation– defended the natural right of the Mortara family over their son by appealing to natural law in the name not only of Christianity, but of a ‘universal morality’, free from the tutelage of the pontiff, arguing that natural law could not be respected in the name of ‘the rights of the Church’. In those pieces, the questioning of the Roman Inquisition vindicated more than the inviolable natural right of the father over his son; the very conceptualization of religious freedom as a natural right itself was called into question by inviting the reader to wonder what would have happened if the victim had been Catholic. From this point of view, Jews were conceived not only as subjects of law but also as part of the identity of Spain.

The condemnation of the kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara allowed the inhabitants of a Catholic Spain without freedom of worship to question the identification between the political and religious communities. The analysis of the Spanish debate on the Mortara case raises questions about the construction of modern political culture. In fact, it addresses both the political history of religion and the religious history of politics, insofar as it enabled the emergence of a universalist language around natural rights, challenging the temporal power of the papacy and denouncing religious intransigence. The Spanish press presented antagonistic views about the possibility of combining religion with freedom. Meanwhile, the persistence of the Roman Inquisition exposed the crossroads at which Catholicism and natural rights found themselves in a century characterized by the revolutionary experience.

Entrepreneurship, Development and Immigrant Social Adaptation: The Jewish Collectivity of Valparaíso-Viña del Mar (Chile)

Baldomero Estrada

PUC

This article investigates and analyses the way in which the Jewish community of Valparaíso-Viña del Mar was integrated into the host society during the 50 years after the group arrived. To that end, the study observes the characteristics of the migrant group in terms of their cultural and social capital, that is their strategies as a community involving the internal networks they developed to better adapt and their ability to insert themselves into the social and economic structure of the host society. The public policies in the country regarding immigrants are analysed, as is the economic scenario in terms of legislation and market potential for business development. The paper also examines the attitudes of society towards the arrival of the immigrants and the perception in the Jewish community of how it was received. The hypothesis is that the Jewish community had adequate resources to adapt to the conditions in the host society in terms of employment opportunities, especially as independent workers, for which there was permissive legislation and little interest in the work among Chileans, meaning that the immigrants were not generally perceived as competitors. There was also significant urban development at the time, which required commercial services and industrial production. It was found that the host society did not display xenophobic attitudes or reject the immigrant groups. The paper studies the qualitative and quantitative evolutionary process of the group in its business until the second generation became integrated, more fully and with greater cultural capital.

The documentation used ranges from a specialized bibliography to local and community press, interviews and original sources obtained from judicial files that provided valuable information on the incorporation of companies, including the names of partners and amounts of capital committed.

The theoretical framework combines the approaches of Jan Rath and Robert Kloosterman, who have investigated the insertion of immigrant entrepreneurs, paying special attention to two factors: the insertion of immigrants into the networks of their community and the host society, i.e. the theory of mixed embeddedness, which appeared in the wake of a number of studies that had prioritized only one of the two participating factors. This approach is more interactive, looking at both the conditions of the host society and the social capital and characteristics of the ethnic group.

The study found that the group knew how to use their capacities well, and how to adapt flexibly to the existing conditions in the labor market, which did not always match their prior experience. Even when they had to venture into novel commercial areas, they were able to adapt as needed. Moreover, although such situations were not always as profitable as expected, they involved a learning process and led to a better understanding of the new environment. The internal solidarity of the group and its strong cohesion in business management and in general was notable.

Although the group declined in numbers because of territorial transfers, this was not due to failures in their enterprises, but to the desire for greater possibilities or to expand the size of their companies in places with greater demand. The group showed a gradual process of adaptation in the labor market that helped them to adapt socially and gain a deeper understanding of the host society. They took the appropriate advantage of the opportunities offered by the state like public education, with most of their children receiving professional degrees. This second generation will play an important role in the consolidation of this integration and in obtaining better results in business, creating associations with increasing investment that have a positive impact on local development. Finally, the community identified itself as belonging to the emerging middle class in terms of its socioeconomic and educational characteristics.