A Space of Anxiety

Dislocation and Abjection in Modern German-Jewish Literature
Erscheinungsjahr 1999
ISBN: 978-90-420-0797-0
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 138, 200 Seiten, Format (B × H): 15 mm x 22 mm

Reihe: Amsterdamer Publikationen zur Sprache und Literatur

A Space of Anxiety engages with a body of German-Jewish literature that, from the beginning of the century onwards, explores notions of identity and kinship in the context of migration, exile and persecution. The study offers an engaging analysis of how Freud, Kafka, Roth, Drach and Hilsenrath employ, to varying degrees, the travel paradigm to question those borders and boundaries that define the space between the self and the other. A Space of Anxiety argues that from Freud to Hilsenrath, German-Jewish literature emerges from an ambivalent space of enunciation which challenges the great narrative of an historical identity authenticated by an "originary" past. Inspired by postcolonial and psychoanalytic theories, the author shows that modern German-Jewish writers inhabit a "Third Space" which poses an alternative to an understanding of culture as a homogeneous tradition based on (national) unity.
By endeavouring to explore this "third space" in examples of modern German-Jewish literature, the volume also aims to contribute to recent efforts to rewriting literary history. In retracing the inherent ambivalence in how German-Jewish literature situates itself in cultural discourse, this study focuses on how this literature subverts received notions of identity and racial boundaries. The study is of interest to students of German literature, German-Jewish literature and Cultural Studies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fuchs, Anne

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Deutsche Literatur Jiddische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction. Freud's Jewishness: Opposing the Compact Majority. The Longing to Belong: Dislocation and Abjection in Kafka's Der Verschollene (Amerika). Roth's Ambivalence: The Logic of Separation in His Writings on Eastern Jewry. Files against the Self: The Case of Albert Drach. Bad Boys and Evil Witches: Gender and Abjection in Edgar Hilsenrath's Der Nazi & der Friseur.
Bibliography. Index.