Overview

Peter Erspamer explores the 'Jewish question' in German literature from Lessing's Nathan der Weise in 1779 to Sessa's Unser Verkehr in 1815. He analyzes the transition from an enlightened emancipatory literature advocating tolerance in the late eighteenth century to an anti-Semitic literature with nationalistic overtones in the early nineteenth century. Erspamer examines Nathan in light of Lessing's attempts to distance himself from the excesses of his own Christian in-group through pariah identification, using an idealized member of an out-group religion as a vehicle to attack the dominant religion. He also focuses on other leading advocates of tolerance and explores changes in Jewish identity, particularly the division of German Jewry into orthodox Jews, adherents of the Haskalah, and converted Jews. The tolerance discourse ended with the Napoleonic incursions into Germany, when nationalism was on the rise and Judaism came to be viewed in racial as well as religious terms.

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9781469614649

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[Erspamer's] application of classic texts by Sartre, Said, Arendt, and Kristeva to the dynamics between majority and minority cultures emphasizes the dangers inherent in demands for either exclusion or complete assimilation and points to the relevance of the cautionary tales for today. This idea is not new, but it certainly bears repeating.--Monatshefte

[Erspamer's] application of classic texts by Sartre, Said, Arendt, and Kristeva to the dynamics between majority and minority cultures emphasizes the dangers inherent in demands for either exclusion or complete assimilation and points to the relevance of the cautionary tales for today. This idea is not new, but it certainly bears repeating.""--Monatshefte

Author Information

Peter R. Erspamer is visiting assistant professor of German at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas.

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