Publisher:
Lang, Peter, AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Oxford
This book gives an account of the literary representation of Jews as businessmen from the early nineteenth century to the onset of the Third Reich. The historical context provides the background for an examination of the literary representation of...
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This book gives an account of the literary representation of Jews as businessmen from the early nineteenth century to the onset of the Third Reich. The historical context provides the background for an examination of the literary representation of Jewish businessmen and presents evidence for the perpetuation, transformation, and combination of stereotypes. The double bind of assimilation - that the Jews were vilified whether they succeeded or failed - is illustrated from literary treatments by the Romantic writer Wilhelm Hauff and the early twentieth-century writers Lion Feuchtwanger and Paul
The image of the Jewish businessman in Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben 61The characteristic behaviour of Jewish businessmen as portrayed in Soll und Haben 71; The implications of Soll und Haben for the image of the Jew in German literature 77; The portrayal of Jewish business practice in two of the works of Gustav Freytag's Jewish contemporaries 82; The legacy of Soll und Haben 88; Chapter Three - 'Heimatkunst' and 'Hauptstadt': The Portrayal of Urban and Rural Jewish Business People in the Literature of the Late Nineteenth Century 93
The image of the 'nefarious' Jewish businessman in Wilhelm von Polenz's Der Büttnerbauer 93Theodor Fontane's 'Judenbild' 113; Shylock unter Bauern: a Nazi epilogue 131; Chapter Four - The Challenge of the 'Jewish Commercial Spirit' in the Early Writing of Heinrich Mann 137; Heinrich von Treitschke: a 'respectable' anti-Semite? 141; 'Gefühl' and stereotype: the image of the Jewish plutocrat 145; The Jewish commercial spirit and aesthetics in Schauspielerin 156; Chapter Five - Responses to Anti-Semitism by Jewish and Non-Jewish Authors 167; Jettchen Gebert's story: a limited symbiosis 167
The Berlin Geberts as paragons of Jewish 'Bürgerlichkeit' 170'Tachlis': a Jewish businessman's world view 175; The role of the Eastern Jews 180; Der neue Ahasver: impossible or unwanted assimilation? 184; A professional career as a means of 'overcoming' Jewishness 187; 'Destructive' Jewish occupations 191; Self-hatred 203; The Cultural Zionist message in Lothar Brieger-Wasservogel's René Richter 206; Hermann Bahr's Die Rotte Korahs: a philosemitic gentile response 215; Conclusion 231; Bibliography 237; Index 245;
Contents; Acknowledgements ix; Introduction 1; The cautionary tale 4; Embourgeoisement and 'decomposition' 5; 'Verjudung' 10; Symbiosis 13; Chapter One - The 'Hoffaktor': A Necessary Evil? 19; The Jud Süß motif in the writings of Wilhelm Hauff, Lion Feuchtwanger and Paul Kornfeld 19; The Süß case 21; The age of Josef Süß Oppenheimer 23; Modernisation, reform and setbacks 29; Wilhelm Hauff 's Jud Süß 31; Hauff 's Jud Süß in the context of Jewish business after the Edict of Emancipation of 1812 36; The treatment of the Jud Süß case in the 1920s 48; Chapter Two - Citizens and Conmen 61