Between redemption and doom : the strains of German-Jewish modernism / Noah Isenberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Isenberg, Noah William.

Series:

Texts and contexts (Unnumbered)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940.

Zweig, Arnold, 1887-1968.

Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924.

Jews--Germany--Intellectual life.

Jews.

Criticism and interpretation.

Germany.

Intellectual life.

German literature--Jewish authors--History and criticism.

German literature.

German literature--Jewish authors.

Jews in literature.

Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924--Criticism and interpretation.

Kafka, Franz.

Zweig, Arnold, 1887-1968--Criticism and interpretation.

Zweig, Arnold.

Golem (Motion picture : 1920).

Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940--Criticism and interpretation.

Benjamin, Walter.

Germany--Civilization--20th century.

Civilization.

Germany--Ethnic relations.

Ethnic relations.

Physical Description:

xiii, 232 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [1999]

Summary:

Between Redemption and Doom is a revelatory exploration of the evolution of German-Jewish modernism. Through an examination of selected works in literature, theory, and film, Noah Isenberg investigates the ways in which Jewish identity was represented in German culture from the eve of the First World War through the rise of National Socialism. He argues that various reponses to modernity -- particularly to its social, cultural, and aesthetic currents -- converge around the discourse on community: its renaissance, its crisis, and its dissolution.

Isenberg opens with a general discussion of German modernism -- its primary forms, movements, and manifestations. Subsequent chapters on Franz Kafka and Arnold Zweig deal with particular instances of the modern, and often ambivalent, search for forms of German-Jewish identity based on cultural and ethnic community. Discussions of Paul Wegener's film Der Golem and Walter Benjamin's childhood memoirs explore the culmination of German modernism and the modes through which Jews were identified in mass society. Throughout, Isenberg shows how Jewish authors and figures confronted the dilemma of self-understanding -- the exigencies of community in the modern world -- in language, culture, memory, and representation.

Contents:

Introduction: Community in Crisis 1

1. In Search of Language: Kafka on Yiddish, Eastern Jewry, and Himself 19

2. The Imagined Community: Arnold Zweig and the Shtetl 51

3. Weimar Cinema, the City, and the Jew: Paul Wegener's Der Golem 77

4. Culture in Ruins: Walter Benjamin's Memories 105

Epilogue: Beyond Symbiosis 147.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-224) and index.

ISBN:

0803225024

OCLC:

39633913