Modernity, Marginality, and Redemption: German and Jewish Identity at the Fin-De-Siècle
MODERNITY, MARGINALITY, AND REDEMPTION: GERMAN AND JEWISH IDENTITY AT THE FIN-DE-SIÈCLE Richard V. Benson A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. Chapel Hill 2009 Approved by: Dr. Jonathan Hess (Advisor) Dr. Jonathan Boyarin Dr. William Collins Donahue Dr. Eric Downing Dr. Clayton Koelb © 2009 Richard V. Benson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Richard Benson Modernity, Marginality, and Redemption: German and Jewish Identity at the Fin-de-Siècle (Under the direction of Dr. Jonathan Hess) Modernity, Marginality, and Redemption: German and Jewish Identity at the Fin-de-Siècle explores the literary, cultural, and historical process of negotiating German-Jewish identity following the radical restructuring of German-Jewish society during the nineteenth century. Modernity, Marginality, and Redemption considers the dynamic cultural roles that writers such as Karl Emil Franzos, Martin Buber, Jakob Wassermann, Theodor Herzl, and others assigned to the image of East European Jewry and of ghetto life, to Chassidic mysticism, and to messianic historical figures. I show that the works of these authors enact a self-conscious reinvention of Jewish tradition, which weds Enlightenment ideals with aspects of Jewish tradition that the Enlightenment had marginalized, while also engaging in dialogue with the most pressing discourses of fin-de-siècle European culture, in order to proffer Jewish identities that are neither strictly national nor simply religious. As I demonstrate, these texts establish Jewish identity as a central coordinate in debates about nationalism, the limits of language, phenomenology, social progress, and cultural degeneration.
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