Description
Book SynopsisProceedings of the Brandeis conference on Jewish Germanists who fled Nazi Germany and their impact on Anglo-American German studies. 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 theAmerican 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 Germanand 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 professor of German at Brandeis University; Meike G. Werner is assistant professor of German at Vanderbilt University.
Trade ReviewThe editors, Meike Werner and Steve Dowden, and their contributors, are to be commended for providing not only a retrospective assessment of the relationship of German Literature and Jewish critics, but also for asking new questions about the future development of research in this area. * INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVE FOR SOCIAL HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE [IASL] *
A crucial resource for anyone interested in German-Jewish history or culture or German Studies more generally. * GERMAN QUARTERLY *
The volume surveys a very broad range of exile experiences and allows for a comparison of the scholarly lives that unfolded in Swiss, British, and American exile.... * GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW *
Should be of interest to German Studies scholars worldwide. * GERMANIC NOTES AND REVIEWS *
Table of ContentsAcademic Emigration and Intercultural Criticism: On the Role of Jewish Critics in Exile - Hinrich C. Seeba Reminiscences of a UFO - Egon Schwarz Aufklärungskulturgeschichte: Bemerkungen zu Judentum, Philologie und Goethe bei Ludwig Geiger - Christoph Koenig Vom wahren Weg: Eine Respondenz - Amir Eshel Trümmer im Gepäck: Margarete Susman, Bertha Badt-Strauss und Hannah Arendt in der Emigration - Barbara Hahn Eine Klassikerin der Literaturtheorie: Käte Hamburger - Gesa Dane A Jewish Critic from Germany: Hermann Levin Goldschmidt - Willi Goetschel Response to Willi Goetschel - Thomas Sparr Part of an Intellectual Autobiography - Walter H. Sokel Response to Walter Sokel - Marc A. Weiner An Appreciation of the Work of J.P. Stern, Siegbert Prawer, and George Steiner - Ritchie Robertson Jewish Critics and German Literature in the Public Sphere: A Response to Ritchie Robertson - David Suchoff
