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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 Nortti Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 9307774 Those other Orientals: The Muslim Orient in the works of Else Lasker-Schiiler, Friedrich Wolf, and Franz Werfel Heizer, Donna Kay, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1992 Copyright ©1992 by Heizer, Donna Kay. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, ME 48106 THOSE OTHER ORIENTALS: THE MUSLIM ORIENT IN THE WORKS OF ELSE LASKER-SCHÜLER, FRIEDRICH WOLF, AND FRANZ WERFEL DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fullfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Donna Kay Heizer, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1992 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Barbara Becker-Cantarino Mark Roche Advisor Marilyn Waldman Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures Copyright by Donna Kay Heizer 1992 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have many people to thank for their support of this dissertation. My committee members— Mark Roche, Marilyn Waldman, and especially my advisor, Barbara Becker-Cantarino — have generously imparted consistent encouragement and helpful advise throughout the doctoral process. Abundant financial assistance has been provided by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the Ohio State University in the form of teaching and research positions and by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) for a grant to pursue research in Berlin during the summer of 1991. Special thanks go to Frau RoBl (Friedrich Wolf Archiv, Lehnitz) and Frau Horn (Akademie der Kiinste, Friedrich Wolf Archiv) whose archival assistance went far beyond the call of duty, and to Michael Berkowitz, who was always willing to share his research. My sincere gratitude for their many years of confident support goes to Professors Henry Remak and Walter Sokel, whose scholarship and teaching have been truly inspirational. Profound thanks go to my wonderful colleagues at Kenyon College and Central Michigan University— whose names are too numerous to list here— for their friendship and the countless ways they have ii assisted me in this endeavor. An especially heartfelt and grateful acknowledgment goes to my family for its undying and loving commitment to my academic pursuits through the years. Most important of all, I thank my spouse, Vernon Schubel, who has always believed in my work and has shared with me a most extraordinary life: it is with love and the deepest appreciation that I dedicate this dissertation to him. Ill VITA January 5, 1962 ................ Born: Fort Worth, Texas January, 1985 .................. B.A., University of Virginia, Charlottesville May, 1987 ...................... M.A., Indiana University, Bloomington Spring, 1988 ................... Instructor, Dept, of English, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant 1991-Present ................... Visiting Assistant Professor, Integrated Program in Humane Studies, Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: German Studies in: German Studies, German Linguistics IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................... ii VITA................................................. iv CHAPTER I. Introduction................................. 1 II. Else Lasker-Schiiler's Orientalist Imaginings.. 46 III. The Function of Mohammed in Friedrich Wolf's Mohammed; Ein Oratorium................... 77 IV. Representations of Orientals in Franz Werfel's Die vierziq Taae des Musa Daah.............. 114 V. Conclusion................................... 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................... 165 V CHAPTER I Introduction This is a study of the Orientalist literature of Else Lasker-Schiiler, Friedrich Wolf, and Franz Werfel.^ My research focuses on two of Lasker-Schiiler ' s collections of short stories and poems entitled Die Nachte Tino von Baodads (1907) and Der Prinz von Theben (1912), Wolf's play Mohammed; Ein Oratorium (1922), and Werfel's novel Die vierziq Taae des Musa Daah (1933) . The disparate concerns of each author are mirrored in these texts, which were written in, and influenced by, distinct periods of rapid ^By "Orientalist literature" I mean literature written in the German language which employs Oriental themes, decorations, or settings. I use the term "Orient" the way most Germans have used it throughout their history. For centuries, the German concept of the Orient focused primarily on those regions and peoples encompassed by Western, Central, and South Asia, as well as North Africa. (Today it also includes East and Southeast Asia.) I only examine German notions about the Muslim (i.e., Islamicate) Orient, because it is just beginning to receive serious attention, despite its pervasiveness in the history of German literature. Furthermore, although they are challenged as constructs throughout this study, I have elected (for aesthetic reasons) not to put quotation marks around such concepts as Orient, Oriental, West, Western, East, Eastern, exotic, etc. However, these terms should be read at all times as though quote marks enclosed them. 2 historical change.^ i explore the ramifications of the historical and literary contexts for the constructions of the Orient presented in these texts. I concentrate on how these authors— who often were seen as Jewish, Oriental Others by the German-speaking societies in which they lived and wrote— depicted Muslims and Islamicate cultures while coming to terms with their own cultural identities.^ By studying representations of Otherness in these works, I seek to reveal an understanding of the self-perceptions of the authors. My purpose is two-fold: first, to understand the social constructions of Difference experienced within the German-speaking Jewish community in the early twentieth century; and second, to illuminate these constructs within a larger German context through an analysis of Orientalism.* ^In addition, these works represent different formalistic literary genres. have adopted the term "Islamicate" from Marshall Hodgson, who distinguishes between it and "Islamic" in the following way: There has been... a culture, centred on a lettered tradition, which has been historically distinctive of Islamdom the society, and which has been naturally shared in by both Muslims and non- Muslims who participate at all fully in the society of Islamdom. For this I have used the adjective "Islamicate." I thus restrict the term "Islam" to the religion of the Muslims, not using that term for the far more general phenomena, the society of Islamdom and its Islamicate cultural traditions. (58) ^Edward Said refers to three different uses for the term Orientalism: the changing historical and cultural relationship between Europe and Asia, the scientific discipline in the West specializing in the study of various Oriental cultures, and European ideological suppositions. 3 Ultimately this dissertation reveals how these authors came to terms with their multiple identities as Germans and Jews by writing Orientalist literature.^ The complex nature of the identities of German Jewish authors in the period 1900-1933 presents a challenge to any analysis of constructions of identity and Otherness in the Orientalist literary works of Lasker-Schviler, Wolf, and Werfel. Indeed, German literary and cultural attitudes towards the Orient have always been complicated, because they have been formulated over centuries of contact— intellectual and otherwise— with the Islamicate world. This study explores the diverse perspectives about the Orient images, and fantasies about the Orient (Said, "Reconsidered” 90). I will be exploring only the third definition of Orientalism as it applies to German fictional depictions of the Muslim Orient. ^I have chosen in this study to use the blanket term "German Jew” to designate those Germans who were considered to be ethnically and culturally associated with the Jewish faith community. For most non-Jewish Germans, this was viewed as a fairly undifferentiated minority group. Among German Jews, however, questions of identity were more complex. Issues surrounding one's ethnic (Western or Eastern/ German, Yiddish, or Hebrew-speaking),