Shakespearean Crusades: The Shaping Of A New Europe And A New European Identity In The Merchant Of Venice

In this article I propose, by means of intertextuality, historical recontextualization and close textual reading, to look at the neglected Islamic content of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Bringing to light this content presents the Bard under the unexpected light of an artist aware of the mixed European cultural and racial heritage and therefore actively involved in the fighting of this non-Christian and non-European influence in order to make the post-Medieval Early Modem Western Europe and European identity possible . In particular, this enterprise involves in the play the rewriting of a Medieval Christian literary tradition betraying this reality , the re- appropriation of a Moslezm Jerusalem as a symbol of triumphant Christianity, and the silencing of the Moorish Moslem cultural influence and physical presence which were still palpable in Shakespeare's lifetime. It is worth remembering, indeed, that the Moors had not yet been totally expelled from Spain at the time of the play. Besides, I think that the British Shakespeare's personal involvement in this ethnical and cultural cleansing is all the more interesting to study as it suggests that this Moorish and Moslem civilization had extended far beyond the geographical limits acknowledged by official history