German Language and Literature
Subject: German rural Jewry and its representation in German fiction
Supervisor: Prof. Jakob Hessing
Abstract: My PhD-project, located at the intersection between Jewish studies and German literature, is dedicated to the study of German rural Jewry as portrayed in tales, stories, novels and other works of fiction. Rather than being confined to the analysis and interpretation of aesthetic form and narrative content, the approach put forward in my dissertation views fiction as a means of social discourse, as a platform for negotiating and experimenting with issues at stake.
Taking account of bourgeois transformation during the 19th century as a watershed in Jewish history, I opted for a chronological approach by outlining three main chapters: Chapter 1 deals with mainly non-Jewish writings of the pre- and early emancipatory period, chapter 2 is dedicated to bourgeois Jewish middlebrow fiction of the 19th century, and chapter 3 analyzes two proto-expressionist novels inspired by Nietzschean doctrine.
Presidential Stipend 2012/13