The first extensive comparison of the German-Jewish literary corpus and contemporary minority writing in German Countless literary endeavours by ‘new Germans’ have come into the spotlight of academic research since the turn of the 21st century. Yet ‘minority writing’ and its distinctive renegotiation of traditional concepts of cultural identity are far from a recent phenomenon in German literature. More than a hundred years ago, German-Jewish writers put a clear stamp on German modernism and were intensely engaged in various cultural and political discourses on Jewish identity. This book is the first to unfold literary parallels between these two riveting periods in German cultural history. Drawing on the philosophical oeuvre of Jean-Luc Nancy, a comparative reading of texts by, amongst others, Beer-Hofmann, Kermani, Özdamar, Roth, Schnitzler, and Zaimoglu examines similar literary approaches to the thorny issue of cultural identity in either period, while developing an overarching perspective on the ‘politics of literature’. Countless literary endeavours by ‘new Germans’ have come into the spotlight of academic research since the turn of the 21st century. Yet ‘minority writing’ and its distinctive renegotiation of traditional concepts of cultural identity are far from a recent phenomenon in German literature. More than a hundred years ago, German-Jewish writers put a clear stamp on German modernism and were intensely engaged in various cultural and political discourses on Jewish identity. This book is the first to unfold literary parallels between these two riveting periods in German cultural history. Drawing on the philosophical oeuvre of Jean-Luc Nancy, a comparative reading of texts by, amongst others, Beer-Hofmann, Kermani, Özdamar, Roth, Schnitzler, and Zaimoglu examines similar literary approaches to the thorny issue of cultural identity in either period, while developing an overarching perspective on the ‘politics of literature’. Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 Constitutive outsiders 1.1 Ambivalences of Kultur and Aufklärung Constructions of German identity Kultur versus Zivilisation 1.2 “Trapped by the image of a rejected self ”—Jews in Germany, German Jews Emancipation and acculturation (1770–1880) Modern anti-Semitism and Jewish dissimilation (1880–1933) The ambivalence of assimilation 50 1.3 A reluctant country of immigration From emigration to immigration Kultur in the aftermath of non-policy: MultiKulti—Leitkultur—‘Deutschland schafft sich ab’ 1.4 Literature, identity, and singularity Chapter 2 Aesthetes between identity and opposition 67 2.1 The authenticity paradox—Writing between identity and opposition 2.2 The aesthete’s retreat: Arthur Schnitzler’s Fräulein Else (1924) versus Navid Kermani’s Kurzmitteilung (2007) The ‘value’ of cultural difference: Arthur Schnitzler and Navid Kermani A conflict of codes: ‘aesthetics of opposition’ versus ‘aesthetics of identity’ 2.3 The aesthete’s awakening: Beer-Hofmann’s Der Tod Georgs (1900) versus Zaimoglu’s Liebesbrand (2008) 102 Jewish aesthete and romantic rebel: Richard Beer-Hofmann and Feridun Zaimoglu Realitätsablehnung & experiences of finitude Aesthetics of becoming—The ambivalent rhetoric of blood Conclusion Chapter 3 City dwellers between difference and indifference 3.1 Images of the city: emancipatory visions and spatialized difference Berlin: image of an unsettled national identity Indifference to difference The city as a site of Jewish self-definition Urban stereotype and spatialized difference 3.2 The failure of exemplarity—‘Figures of immanence’:Ludwig Jacobowski’s Werther, der Jude (1892) versus Terezia Mora’s Alle Tage (2004) Exemplarity, identification, alienation ‘Figures of immanence’: the atomic individual versus the Leerstelle Metropolitan milieus: ‘the law of the proper’ versus Verletzbarkeit 3.3 Disoriented city dwellers—Figures of ‘distanced proximity’: Franz Hessel’s Spazieren in Berlin (1929) versus Emine Sevgi Ozdamar’s “Der Hof im Spiegel” (2001) Reading the city Disoriented/dis-Oriented city dwellers Conclusion Chapter 4 Family heroes between myth and storytelling 4.1 Writing in the shadow of an empire 4.2 Family heroes redefined: Joseph Roth’s Radetzkymarsch (1932) versus Dimitre Dinev’s Engelszungen (2003) Storytellers between empires and nations:Joseph Roth and Dimitre Dinev “Listening to the same story”—Heroic grandfathers and the power of fiction “Against the confines of the image”—Un-/antiheroic grandsons and the power of storytelling 4.3 “Diaspora’s children”—Heroics of endurance and hope: Joseph Roth’s Hiob (1930) versus Zsusza Bank’s Der Schwimmer (2002) Between East and West—Between pathos and hope: Joseph Roth and Zsuzsa Bank Communities of violence—Communities of silence Allowing something to be said—Hope emerging from silence Conclusion Conclusion The fallibility of Bildung Notes Introduction Chapter 1: Constitutive outsiders Chapter 2: Aesthetes between identity and opposition Chapter 3. City dwellers between difference and indifference Chapter 4. Family heroes between myth and storytelling Conclusion: The fallibility of Bildung Bibliography