French and Jewish : culture and the politics of identity in early twentieth-century France
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Bibliographic Information
French and Jewish : culture and the politics of identity in early twentieth-century France
(The Littman library of Jewish civilization)
Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2008
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-266) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This study of Jewish cultural
innovation in early twentieth-century France highlights the complexity and
ambivalence of Jewish identity and self-definition in the modern world.
Following the Dreyfus affair, French
Jews increasingly began to question how Jewishness should be defined in a
society where Jews enjoyed full political equality. Writers who had previously not
given voice to their Jewish origins began to explore biblical themes,
traditional Jewish folklore, and issues of identity and assimilation. A
plethora of new journals focusing on Jewish religion, history, and culture came
into being, as did a multitude of associations-literary societies, youth
groups, religious organizations-that emphasized Jewish distinctiveness
Nadia Malinovich explores this blossoming of Jewish cultural life in France,
often described by contemporaries as a Jewish 'renaissance' or 'awakening'.
Describing and analysing the emergence of new forms of Jewish associational
life, she shows that the interface between the various groups was as important
as the differences between them: it was the process of debate and dialogue that
infused new energy into French Jewish identity and culture. She similarly
analyses the Jewish press and literature to develop a typology of themes,
providing a panoramic view of how Jewish identity and culture were discussed
and debated among Jews and non-Jews of varying ideological, cultural, and
political orientations. Her analysis also provides a vantage point from which
to explore the complex ways in which French national identity was re-negotiated
in the early twentieth century. During this period, French Jews in effect
reshaped the category of Frenchness itself, and in so doing created new
possibilities for being both French and Jewish.
This is a stimulating and original book that makes a major contribution to our
understanding of modern Jewish history as well as to the history of the Jews in
France and to the larger discourse about Jewish identities in the modern world.
Table of Contents
Note on Transliteration and Conventions Used in the Text
Introduction
1 Setting the Stage: Jewish Identity in the Nineteenth Century and the Impact of the Dreyfus Affair
2 The Beginnings of a French Jewish Literature
3 Between Religion and Ethnicity: Zionism and Reform Judaism before the First World War
4 The First World War and the Shifting Landscape of French Jewry
5 Enlivening the Public Sphere: Jewish Sociability in the 1920s
6 Press Culture, Art, Music, the Inter-Faith Movement, and Debates on the Significance of the Renaissance Itself
7 Jewish Literature in France, 1920-1932
8 Reshaping Franco-Judaism, 1920-1932
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"