Critical theories of anti-Semitism / Jonathan Judaken.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Judaken, Jonathan, 1968- author.

Series:

New directions in critical theory ; volume 86.

New directions in critical theory series ; volume 86

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Antisemitism--History.

Antisemitism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 348 pages).

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2024]

Summary:

This book is at once a philosophical reflection on key problems in the analysis of anti-Semitism and a history of its leading theories and theorists.

"Despite its millennia-long history and frightening contemporary resurgence, unlike other forms of exclusion and discrimination, anti-Semitism (the author makes a case for the hyphenated spelling and the term's relation to Judeophobia, which explicitly references intersectional categories such as Islamophobia, xenophobia, homophobia, Negrophobia [Fanon], and others) remains undertheorized. This book is a corrective. The first systematic, comparative, and integrative analysis of the major theories and theorists, Anti-Semitism undertakes three urgently needed tasks. First, it explores key methodological and conceptual issues. Second, it identifies and considers seven major paradigms for understanding the underlying causes. Third, it applies the insights of these theories and theorists to contemporary debates about Judeophobia, offering rigor and clarity to existing disputes. Anti-Semitism as a theoretical construct dates back to the period of the Dreyfus affair (1894-1906) when historians sought to dismantle enduring myths about Jews and challenged the idea that Jews were a distinct race. Following World War I, studies focused on the links between nationalism and anti-Semitism and considered the dynamics of group formation against outsiders and minorities. The aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust saw important contributions from existentialists, critical theorists, and sociologists, leading to the formation of Holocaust studies as a discipline, but with the advent of the civil rights movement and anticolonialism in the 1950s social theorists interested in the problem of racism began to focus primarily on anti-Black prejudice, and theoretical debates on anti-Semitism receded to the background, where they remain unresolved. Jonathan Judaken evaluates anti-Semitism's internal theoretical concerns and engages in a comparative analysis with other critical race theories. In our moment of widespread racial reckoning, it is critical to reexamine the major approaches to anti-Semitism, their concepts, narratives, and assumptions, and how they are linked to other racisms in order to gain new insights in confronting its global surge"-- ǂc Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Critical Theory and Judeophobia

1. Jean- Paul Sartre’s Existentialist Antiracism

2. The Frankfurt School and the Anti- Semitic Question

3. Hannah Arendt, Anti- Semitism, and Her “Story” of History

4. The Sociology of Modern Anti- Semitism from Talcott Parsons to Zygmunt Bauman

5. Jean- François Lyotard, Postmodernism, and “the jews”

6. Léon Poliakov, the Origins of Holocaust Studies, and the Long History of Judeophobia

7. George Mosse on Modernity, Culture, and “the Jew”

8. Critical Theory and Post- Holocaust Judeophobia.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0231559631

9780231559638

OCLC:

1417600037