Orientalism and the Figure of the Jew

Jeffrey S. Librett

Published by Fordham University Press 2014

Orientalism and the Figure of the Jew

Jeffrey S. Librett

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780823262946

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book demonstrates the inextricable entanglement of Orientalism and anti-Judaism in modern German letters. It shows how historicist narratives posit the Orient as fetish in lieu of absent origins, then appropriate this fetish by applying to the East-West relation the Christian supercessionist typology earlier developed to construe the Jewish-Christian relation.

Author / Editor information

Librett Jeffrey S. :

Jeffrey S. Librett is Professor of German at the University of Oregon.

Reviews

—David Martyn:
“This magisterially researched and probingly argued study opens a completely new and potentially groundbreaking perspective on Orientalism. In impeccably executed detail, it demonstrates that what has long been seen as a binary opposition between East and West has in fact relied since its inception on a triangular dynamic between three shifting poles: not simply Occident vs. Orient, but the Occident, the Orient, and the Jew. Orientalism and the Figure of the Jew will be of interest to a wide range of scholars.”

—Elisabeth Weber:
In this sweeping study reaching from Baruch Spinoza to Edward Said, Jeffrey Librett uncovers with superb erudition the driving force of Orientalism: the panicked disavowal of the 'crisis of foundations' in Western modernity. Librett's astute analyses of transcendental-historicist texts from Herder to Schopenhauer are followed by fresh interpretations of critical modernist responses by Kafka and Freud. A groundbreaking critique of Said's critique of Freud and a keen analysis of the vicissitudes of contemporary German Orientalism complement this 'anamnestic journey.' The 19th century historicist appropriation of typology is shown to culminate disastrously in the Semitic/Aryan split, only to be shadowed by the split between the 'good' and the 'bad Semite' - an antagonism that haunts international politics in ruinous ways to this day. Librett's study is of great relevance for scholars of German philosophy and culture, Middle-Eastern Studies, Religious Studies and Psychoanalysis, and for any scholar concerned about the conflict in the Middle-East.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction: Orientalism as Typology, or How to Disavow the Modern Abyss Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Historicist Orientalism: Transcendental Historiography from Johann Gottfried Herder to Arthur Schopenhauer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Part II. How Not to Appropriate Orientalist Typology: Some Modernist Responses to Historicism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Conclusion: For an Abstract Historiography of the Nonexistent Present Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Pages
- Main content: 376
Keywords: Orientalism; anti-Semitism; Jewish Studies; German Romanticism; German Idealism; modernity; typology; figural interpretation; deconstruction; fetishism; disavowal; psychoanalysis; supercessionism; Edward Said; Hegel; Schopenhauer; Kafka; Buber; Freud; Goethe; Herder; Schlegel

eBook

Published: November 3, 2014
ISBN: 9780823262946