Title: The word unheard : legacies of anti-Semitism in German literature and culture /
Authors: Helfer, Martha B., 1962-
Publisher: Northwestern University Press,
Year: 2011
Subjects: German literature History and criticism; German literature History and criticism; Antisemitism Germany History; Antisemitism Germany History; Jews Germany Social conditions; Jews Germany Social conditions; Antisemitism in literature; Jews in literature
Abstract: Between 1749 and 1850—the formative years of the so-called Jewish Question in Germany—the emancipation debates over granting full civil and political rights to Jews provided the topical background against which all representations of Jewish characters and concerns in literary texts were read. Helfer focuses sharply on these debates and demonstrates through close readings of works by Gotthold Lessing, Friedrich Schiller, Achim von Arnim, Annette von Droste- Hülshoff, Adalbert Stifter, and Franz Grillparzer how disciplinary practices within the field of German studies have led to systematic blind spots in the scholarship on anti-Semitism to date.
Contents: Introduction: the language of anti-Semitism -- Lessing and the limits of Enlightenment -- Questioning origins: Friedrich von Schiller's The legation of Moses -- Germany under the sign of the Jew: Achim von Arnim's Isabella of Egypt -- Reading blood: Annette von Droste-Hulshoff's The Jews' beech tree -- Natural anti-Semitism: Adalbert Stifter's Abdias -- Framing the Jew: Franz Grillparzer's The Jewess of Toledo -- Conclusion: the word unheard.