... In this chapter, Boucher argues that Slavoj Žižek’s theory of the traumatic kernel of the Real at the center of social antagonism provides the key to understanding what is for contemporary critics Shakespeare’s most problematic play, The Merchant of Venice . Homing in on the disturbing affect...

... Slavoj Žižek ideology social antagonism anti-Semitism The Merchant of Venice ...

... of goods into, out of, and around Venice; it reveals the ways in which Venetian waterways aided not only in the movement of goods but also in trade and networks; and it lays out the built fabric of the city and how that built fabric fostered interconnections between merchants, goods, and families...

... The appendixes feature two archival documents of value to the View of Venice , including the previously unpublished will of Anton Kolb, the German merchant who oversaw the woodcut’s production. One appendix presents entries on the sites and buildings still most tvisited by tourists today...

.... The mainland towns identified along the margins—Marghera, Mestre, Treviso, and Serravalle—describe a sequence by which German merchants and pilgrims traveled between Venice and Germany. This essay considers how the Alpine landscape between southern Germany and Venice took on its own character around 1500...

... but also in trade and networks; and it lays out the built fabric of the city and how that built fabric fostered interconnections between merchants, goods, and families. trade ships merchants Jacopo de’ Barbari’s View is a beautiful portrait of the city of Venice, yet almost no people appear...

...’ Barbari’s margins testify to the ambitions and scope of the View , particularly how it addresses a German clientele. The mainland towns identified along the margins—Marghera, Mestre, Treviso, and Serravalle—describe a sequence by which German merchants and pilgrims traveled between Venice and Germany...

... and economic events of the time. Between 1497 and 1500, Venetian merchants were alarmed to learn that the Portuguese had circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope, threatening Venice’s Mediterranean monopoly on the spice trade, and the Venetian economy was rocked by banking failures and changes in patrician galley...

... into a sociopolitical stage, delimiting its original economic purpose; early in the sixteenth century, the Rialto becomes the city’s economic core. To make way for new architectural structures, physical modification within Piazza San Marco included the removal of guesthouses, apartments for wealthy foreign merchants...

... to understanding what is for contemporary critics Shakespeare’s most problematic play, The Merchant of Venice . Homing in on the disturbing affect generated by the interaction of ideology and aesthetics throughout the play, Boucher shows how Žižek enables us to link the aesthetic interference between its romantic...

... trade ships merchants ...