Antisemitic Discourse and Narrative, or the Antisemite as Novelist

Modern antisemitism in its founding moment, between the 1880s and the early 1920s, was created and spread as a narrative: from Edouard Drumont, La France juive (1886) to the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (1903-1919). A key feature of these narratives was conspirationism: they offered the revelation and description of a supposed hidden role of Jews in world affairs. But narrative is a more general mode of organization, interpretation and transmission of events and knowldege, and anti-Jewish hostility has been based on a set of repetitive narratives or plots at least since the Middle Ages. This papers explores the influence of literary models, and the use of literary and narrative devices, in the creation and spread of modern antisemitism.