Symposium Details
Title:
Amor Y Odio - The Jews in Spain and Beyond
Date:
Thursday 22 November 2012, from 3.00pm -5.00pm
Venue:
South Theatre, Level 2, Old Arts
The University of Melbourne, Parkville
Details:
Forced to a bitter choice in 1492, some of the Sephardim (the
Spanish Jews) left Spain and went into permanent exile, taking with
them a language, a literature and a profound and beautiful music.
Others remained in Spain and were baptised as Christians, only to
find that baptism was no guarantee against suspicion and
persecution. This symposium explores themes of love and hatred,
death and longing, as they are transmitted in the literature and
music of the Sephardim and in the literature and music that were
used as a weapon against them.
Symposium Programme
Prof John Griffiths
Monash University, The University of Melbourne, CESR, Tours
Performing Sephardic song across the centuries - the romancero and
cultural memory- Old Spanish ballads have survived extensive
travels through time and space in the hearts of Sephardic Jews. The
songs are part of a cultural memory that has remained with these
people for more than 500 years since they were banished from the
land they had inhabited and loved for centuries before that. This
talk explores some of the ramifications of these observations,
especially from the viewpoint of contemporary performance.
Dr François Soyer
The University of Adelaide
The Ghost of the Jew in Early Modern Spain: The Figure of the Jew
in Spanish Polemical Literature - The Jews were expelled from Spain
in 1492, but for centuries, the descendants of converted Jews
continued to reside in the Iberian Peninsula and were ferociously
persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition. In the wake of 1492,
numerous vernacular books and pamphlets were printed in Spain with
the explicit intention of inspiring a fear and hatred of Jews and
their descendants amongst the lay population. This paper seeks to
present some of the ways in which "the Jew" was deliberately
demonized in this form of literature in order to justify the
persecution of their converted descendants.
Dr Helen Dell
The University of Melbourne
'The hour in which I am': the presence of death in Sephardic
poetry and song.-'There is nothing for me … but
the hour in which I am. It lasts but a moment, and like a cloud,
is no more' (Samuel Ha-Nagid, 993-1056). My paper explores the idea
that, in some of the literature and music of the Sephardim, death
is present as the vast backdrop against which life appears as a
brief flash. In these songs and poems, however, the transience and
uncertainty of life and the everpresence of death do not dull life,
but rather give that brief moment an extraordinary vibrancy, a
trmendous poignance and point when one takes the risk of living
it.
Download Flyer
CD Launch and Reception
Title:
La vida es un pasahe: a life in Sephardic song
Time:
5.30pm to 7.00pm
Venue:
Arts Hall, Level 1, Old Arts (Building 149)
The University of Melbourne, Parkville
A performance by Helen Dell and Troveresse will follow the
symposium, to celebrate the launch of their new CD:
"La vida es un pasahe: a life in Sephardic song".
Please RSVP to helendel@vicnet.net.au
