Between Story and Theology: Humans, Animals, and Human Animals in the Middle Ages

This lecture will explore several narratives that circulated in and beyond medieval Ashkenaz in which the boundaries between humans and animals (and more broadly, between humanity and animality) are examined and interrogated. These categories faced increased scrutiny during this period, as medieval Jews and Christians in northwest Europe debated Jews` taxonomic standing--i.e. to what species they belonged--in overlapping legal, exegetical, and theological discourses. This historical backdrop, in which the symbolism of the "beastly Jew" loomed large, can help to illuminate some of the otherwise obscure details in these tales, and sheds light on the ways in which "folk narratives" intersected with broader currents of medieval Jewish cultural production.