| Chapter Introduction: | Introduction to the Handbook on Prejudice |
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when modernisation theory's normative focus on the individual was relaxed and a new wave of research on identity formation started. Social psychologists and political scientists, among others, have reconstructed the universal mechanisms of identity construction. These mechanisms, including the use and repetition of stereotypes, could be linked to a deeper layer in our memory in which we carry remnants and residual elements from our anthropological history. In these layers, the disposition to become a member of a group and to build up a group identity could be buried but still resonate in us and recharge the batteries of some of our prejudices. There is yet another explanation to account for the inability to change deeply rooted prejudices without having recourse to archetypes. This is George Orwell's (1984) or Mario Erdheim's (1982) theory about the production of a collective unconscious. The paradoxical insight of these theories is that something can be made unconscious by various strategies, practices, and rituals (see also A. Assmann 1994). The first step to overcome these deeply rooted responses would be to lift them into consciousness. Literature is a privileged discourse in which stereotypes and prejudices are made reflexive. This brings me to my last section.
5. Stereotypes and Prejudices in Literature
Just like the relationship between prejudice and memory, the relationship between prejudice and literature deserves further investigation. An often quoted example is Shakespeare's portrait of the Jew and banker Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1992). In this portrait, Shakespeare assembles all the Judaeophobic stereotypes available at the time: Shylock is rich, greedy for money, unsociable, and unwilling to eat and drink with gentiles, has a heart of stone, and is bent on precise and cruel revenge. Shakespeare's play, however, is not only a repetition and recharging of these prejudices, but also a reflexive display of them. While presenting Shylock in this traditional light, Shakespeare also lucidly analyses the mechanisms of exclusion exerted on this character. And literature provides something else again: Shakespeare gives a monologue to Shylock