Judaized romance and romanticized Judaization: Adaptation in Hebrew and early Yiddish chivalric literature

This dissertation examines the way that three romances have been adapted from their source texts in non-Jewish European languages to suit their target Jewish audiences. It begins with a summary of the issues at stake in the study of such romances: namely, what does it mean to Judaize a text? What is the relationship between the translated or adapted literature and Jewish literature? This is followed by three case studies; the first one is dedicated to the prose Hebrew Arthurian romance Melech Artus (1279); the second---to the Early Yiddish Arthurian romance Vidvilt (ca. 15th century); the third---to Elye Levita's 16th century Bove-bukh, about the adventures of Sir Bove D'Antona. Rather than simply describing the nature of their adaptive techniques, this dissertation is about what these adaptions reveal about translation, religious and cultural identity and the genre of romance in these languages and periods. In each chapter, these romances are read against their source material and each other. At the same time, previous scholarship on these romances is contextualized within the cultural, historical and literary trends that shaped it. While the case studies help to dispel the problematic assumptions and interpretations that have long been prevalent in the research, the concluding chapter posits trajectories for future research in the fields of translation, religious/cultural identity and literary studies with regard to Jewish literature from the Medieval and Early Modern Periods.