The Golem film shows how folkloric monsters were repurposed as ethnic threats

Evidence

Paul Wegener’s 1920 film, The Golem: How He Came into the World, is an example of the latter, by altering the golem legends situated in Jewish folklore to create a monster that threatens German Christians. This Jewish monster is ultimately destroyed by an Aryan hero. “The beautiful blonde child who vanquishes the Jewish menace becomes an innocent defender of her faith as well as her people.” The Golem film is one of many movies depicting Jews as monsters. … The Muslim characters examined here also have implications, for they, like the golem, function as powerful celluloid monsters, but they also exist beyond the Most of the Muslim monsters examined here have, in one way or another, been inspired by Orientalism, which is formulated in a “symbolic world of infinite complexity, surprise, color, manifold variety and richness.” — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 597

Categorization

• QUESTION: The passage cuts off mid-sentence at ‘beyond the’ — worth noting the reader may want to check the original book for the rest of this thought about how Muslim celluloid monsters extend beyond film.
• SEED: Strong parallel for the reader’s thesis: the Golem shows how folk monsters functioned as containers for fresh ethnic anxieties even before cinema — evidence that this manufacturing process is mechanical, not specific to Muslims.