Marranos

The Other of the Other

Donatella Di Cesare, David Broder

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781509542055
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy

Marranos were Spanish or Portuguese Jews who converted to Christianity at the time of the Spanish Inquisition to avoid being massacred or forced to flee but who continued to practise Judaism in secret. They were persecuted by the first racist blood laws but the water of forced baptism was not enough to make them assimilate.

Donatella Di Cesare sees the marranos as the quintessential figures of the modern condition: the marranos were not just those whom modernity cast out as the 'other', but were those 'others' who were forced to disavow their beliefs and conceal themselves. They became 'the other of the other', doubly excluded, condemned to a life of existential duplicity with no way out, spurned by both Catholics and Jews and unable to belong fully to either community. But this double life of the marranos turned out to be a secret source of strength. Doubly estranged, with no possibility of redemption, the marranos became modernity's first true radicals. Dissidents out of necessity, they inaugurated modernity with their ambivalence and their split self. And their story is not over.

By treating the history of the marranos as a prism through which to grasp the defining features of modernity, this highly original book will be of interest to a wide readership.

Contents

1. Cover
2. Title Page
3. Copyright Page
4. Epigraph
5. The Last Jews: To Begin
6. Anarchiveable
7. Romantic Heroes or Cowardly Renegades?
8. Esther and Another Sovereignty
9. Convert and Flee!
10. When It All Began
11. Between Silence and Nostalgia
12. ‘New Christians’?
13. The Other of the Other
14. An Existential Duplicity
15. The Discovery of the Self
16. Water and Blood: From Toledo to Nuremberg
17. The Great Purge
18. Flight and Withdrawal
19. The Theology of the Marranos
20. Teresa of Ávila and the Interior Castle
21. ‘Válete por ti!’
22. An Insult and Its Fantastic History
23. The Planetary Archipelago and the Anarchic Nation
24. The ‘New Jews’, between Livorno and Amsterdam
25. Messianic Sparks
26. Spinoz...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Epigraph
• The Last Jews: To Begin
• Anarchiveable
• Romantic Heroes or Cowardly Renegades?
• Esther and Another Sovereignty
• Convert and Flee!
• When It All Began
• Between Silence and Nostalgia
• ‘New Christians’?
• The Other of the Other
• An Existential Duplicity
• The Discovery of the Self
• Water and Blood: From Toledo to Nuremberg
• The Great Purge
• Flight and Withdrawal
• The Theology of the Marranos
• Teresa of Ávila and the Interior Castle
• ‘Válete por ti!’
• An Insult and Its Fantastic History
• The Planetary Archipelago and the Anarchic Nation
• The ‘New Jews’, between Livorno and Amsterdam
• Messianic Sparks
• Spinoza, Democracy, the Freedom of the Secret
• The Political Laboratory of Modernity
• Marranism in the Third Reich
• The Counter-History of the Defeated and the Revenge of the Marranos
• ‘The Marrano is a Spectre I Love’
• The Secret of Remembrance – The Recollection of the Secret
• To Find Out More
• End User License Agreement