Name: REGILENE AMARAL DOS SANTOS
Type: MSc dissertation
Publication date: 17/12/2020
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| SERGIO ALBERTO FELDMAN | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| KELLEN JACOBSEN FOLLADOR | External Examiner * |
| PATRÍCIA MARIA DA SILVA MERLO | Internal Examiner * |
| SERGIO ALBERTO FELDMAN | Advisor * |
Summary: The Barcelona Debate in 1263 was an event promoted by the Dominican Order
in conjunction with the Catalan-Aragonese monarchy. At the time, a convert, friar
Pablo Christiani, and a Catalan rabbi, Moses ben Maimon, discussed the motion
that there were writings from rabbinic Judaism that demonstrated the advent of
the Messiah. After the confrontation, two versions with different information about
the results of the discussion were written, one by the rabbi and the other
anonymous, being known in Portuguese as Maimons Vikuah (A Vikuah de
Nahmânides) and The Christian Report (O Relato Cristão). From the examination
of these primary documentation, in the light of the Content Analysis proposed by
Laurence Bardin, this study takes a sociocultural approach to the observable
representations in the different narrative constructions about the event and
emphasizes the conflict of adjacent identities in each version. In view of the
analyzes undertaken, this master thesis concludes that the maintenance of
borders between Judaism and Christianity is found in the narratives, through a
dichotomy observed through the use of binary oppositions and diverse valuations
between the disputant and their rival. In relation to the rabbi, the Christian version
adopts representations that signal the adversary's incapacity, lies and errors,
while those of the friar show their skill and diligence in elaborating the
interpretations of the texts cited. In relation to the friar, the Jewish version
elaborates representations that characterize the Christian's foolishness and
inabilities to understand Talmudic texts, while highlighting the rabbi's eloquence
and erudition. Through these controversial sources, we seek to understand,
based on the way in which the interpretative differences around the figure of the
Messiah were described, the different representations that each group built of
itself and the other in that specific context.
