Poetry’s Struggle with “Judaism” in Thirteenth-Century Castile

From its birth in the thirteenth century, Castilian poetics has often represented itself as threatened by “Judaism.”  Indeed, the struggle against Judaism was sometimes used to justify the writing of Castilian poetry at a time when vernacular poetics were viewed with suspicion by Christian moralists and theologians.  Why was Castilian poetry thought to be at risk of Judaism?  How did poets deploy Judaism in order to justify their poetic pursuits?  And what did all this have to do with the Jews living in Castile?  We will ask these questions of a group of thirteenth century poets, including Gonzalo de Berceo, King Alfonso X, and the anonymous author of the Book of Alexander.