SER OU NÃO SER JUDEU: SUBVERSÃO DE ESTEREÓTIPOS RACIAIS EM "O MERCADOR DE VENEZA" DE SHAKESPEARE

Abstract

 The recurrent manifestations of prejudice and discrimination in the 21st century invite us to reflect on the contemporaneousness of The Merchant of Venice. In this play, Shakespeare reveals the mechanisms of the Manichaean logic, turns stereotypes upside down and cunningly manipulates the concepts of cultural construction. He selects as his object of analysis and reflection the racial, religious and cultural hatred between the Jew and the Christian, tied up in a process of economic symbiosis in the Venice of the early modern period, centre of nascent capitalism, showing that the reason for aggressive impulses exploding on both sides has to do with the reciprocal intolerance which arises from their being tied up in a relation of opposition and dependence. In the process of demystifying the dominant ideology, the bard suggests that the economical power of the Jew is the crux of his demonization.