German Literature, Jewish Critics

by Dowden, Stephen D.; Werner, Meike

• ISBN13: 9781571131584
• ISBN10: 1571131582
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-01
• Publisher: Camden House

Summary

Among the Jewish academics and intellectuals expelled from Germany and Austria during the Nazi era were many specialists in German literature. Strangely, their impact on the practice of Germanistik in the United States, England, and Canada has been given little attention. Who were they? Did their vision of German literature and culture differ significantly from that of those who remained in their former homeland? What problems did they face in the American and British academic settings? Above all, how did they help shape German studies in the postwar era? This unique and important symposium, which convened at Brandeis University under the auspices of its Center for German and European Studies, addresses these and many other questions. Among its distinguished participants--who numbered over thirty in all--are Peter Demetz (Yale, emeritus), Gesa Dane (Göttingen), Amir Eshel (Stanford), Willi Goetschel (Toronto), Barbara Hahn (Princeton), Susanne Klingenstein (MIT), Christoph König (Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach), Ritchie Robertson (Oxford), Egon Schwarz (Washington University St. Louis, emeritus), Hinrich Seeba (UC Berkeley), Walter Sokel (University of Virginia, emeritus), Frank Trommler (University of Pennsylvania), and many more. The volume includes not only the (revised) essays of the participants but also their prepared responses, transcripts of the panel discussion, and dialogue of the participants with members of the audience.Stephen D. Dowden is chair of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages at Brandeis University; Meike G. Werner is assistant professor of German at Vanderbilt University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	x
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction: Positions to Defend	xv
Stephen D. Dowden
Meike G. Werner
Cultural Poetics
Academic Emigration and Intercultural Criticism: On the Role of Jewish Critics in Exile	1	(24)
Hinrich C. Seeba
Reminiscences of a UFO	25	(9)
Egon Schwarz
Panelists' Commentary	34	(5)
Discussion	39	(20)
Judische Philologen und ihr Kanon
Aufklarungskulturgeschichte: Bemerkungen zu Judentum, Philologie und Goethe bei Ludwig Geiger	59	(20)
Christoph Konig
Vom wahren Weg: Eine Respondenz	79	(8)
Amir Eshel
Panelists' Commentary	87	(6)
Discussion	93	(6)
A Tradition in Ruins
Trummer im Gepack: Margarete Susman, Bertha Badt-Strauss und Hannah Arendt in der Emigration	99	(22)
Barbara Hahn
Eine Klassikerin der Literaturtheorie: Kate Hamburger	121	(10)
Gesa Dane
Panelists' Commentary	131	(4)
Discussion	135	(14)
German-Jewish Double Identity
A Jewish Critic from Germany: Hermann Levin Goldschmidt	149	(18)
Willi Goetschel
Response to Willi Goetschel	167	(4)
Thomas Sparr
Panelists' Commentary	171	(6)
Discussion	177	(12)
Embattled Germanistik
Part of an Intellectual Autobiography	189	(18)
Walter H. Sokel
Response to Walter Sokel	207	(6)
Marc A. Weiner
Panelists' Commentary	213	(12)
Discussion	225	(12)
German Literature in the Public Sphere
An Appreciation of the Work of J. P. Stern, Siegbert Prawer, and George Steiner	237	(26)
Ritchie Robertson
Jewish Critics and German Literature in the Public Sphere: A Response to Ritchie Robertson	263	(8)
David Suchoff
Panelists' Commentary	271	(6)
Discussion	277	(12)
Peter Demetz: On Marcel Reich-Ranicki
On Marcel Reich-Ranicki	289	(14)
Peter Demetz
Notes on the Contributors	303	(6)
Index	309