Racine and Anti-semitism
Racine and Anti-semitism
Esther is one of the two Biblical plays written by Jean Racine (the other is Athalie) after he had officially retired from composing for the theater. Instead, he had assumed the post of official historiographer of the reign of Louis XIV. Various reasons have been offered for this change of direction. Despite his renunciation of the stage, Racine took up his poetic pen again at the request of Madame de Maintenon, the consort (and secret wife) of the King. His plays are one of the glories of French literature, and of course presumably still form part of the school curriculum. Those who launch accusations of rampant anti-Semitism against French culture, which God knows has contained enough since the French Revolution tore down the gates of the European ghettos, should be asked if they have read Esther. There is no other great classical work in any other European literature that so directly attacks, repudiates, and scorns the anti-Semitic accusations which always have been, and continue to be, leveled against the Jews.
Keywords: Esther, Jean Racine, anti-Semitism, plays, Louis XIV, Jews
Fordham Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
