Meditations on Jewish creative identity : representations of the Jewish artist in the works of German-Jewish writers from Heine to Feuchtwanger

Author(s)

    • Ferstenberg, Helen

Bibliographic Information

Meditations on Jewish creative identity : representations of the Jewish artist in the works of German-Jewish writers from Heine to Feuchtwanger

Helen Ferstenberg

(North American studies in nineteenth-century German literature, v. 34)

P. Lang, c2004

  • pbk.

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-226) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Through an analysis of representations of Jewish artists in the works of German-Jewish writers, this book reveals that the issue of a Jewish creative identity was one of the most explosive aspects of a dual German-Jewish identity. In the shadow of both a widespread anti-Semitic stereotype which denied creativity to Jews and also of increasingly contentious debates in Jewish circles on the proper role of Jewish artists within German culture, German-Jewish writers who portrayed Jewish artists in their works were forced to grapple with some of the most contentious questions of their day: the relative importance of German and Jewish allegiance; the issue of Jewish distinctiveness or its opposite expressed in style, language, and theme; and the viability of a « Jewish participation in German culture. Existing studies sometimes posit Jewish self-hatred or blind attachment to German culture and Enlightenment ideals as characteristic of a broad spectrum of German-Jewish writers. In contrast, this book demonstrates how many German-Jewish writers possessed a profound awareness of cultural conditions and a conscientious desire to integrate the complex demands of a dual identity.

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