Advanced Seminar: Blood & Sacred Bodies: Ritual Murder & Host Desecration Accusations

3 units

This seminar follows the history of the Ritual Murder and Host Desecration accusations from the origins in 12th and 13th century Europe to the 20th century. It pays close attention to the social and political functions of the narratives; their symbolic importance in Christianity's salviric drama; attacks on such beliefs from both within and outside the community of the faithful; the suppression and decline of the ritual murder accusation; the integration of Jews into European societies in the 19th century; and the reappearance of the blood libel in the aftermath of emancipation.