In this essay I explore the different meanings of Jewish Heimatlosigkeit (homelessness) in the German-language literary discourse from the end of the 1800s to the 1970s. The first part shows how in the first decades of the twentieth century the concept forms for several Jewish authors a resistance against nationalism and a possible salvation of cultural values seen as potentially universal in scope. The second part illustrates the political origin of this idea with which many authors reacted to the antisemitic stigmatization of the Jews as heimatlos by those who consider themselves the true representatives of the national culture. The last part highlights how after the Second World War the discourse about Jewish Heimatlosigkeit is not at all abandoned but it concerns either the memory of the near past or refers to the condition of contemporary man, for whom it is impossible to clearly define identity based on bonds of belonging as presupposed in the concept of Heimat.

From Stigma to Salvation? The Heimatlosigkeit of the Jews in the Twentieth-Century German-Language Literary Discourse

GRAZZINI SERENA
2021-01-01

Abstract

In this essay I explore the different meanings of Jewish Heimatlosigkeit (homelessness) in the German-language literary discourse from the end of the 1800s to the 1970s. The first part shows how in the first decades of the twentieth century the concept forms for several Jewish authors a resistance against nationalism and a possible salvation of cultural values seen as potentially universal in scope. The second part illustrates the political origin of this idea with which many authors reacted to the antisemitic stigmatization of the Jews as heimatlos by those who consider themselves the true representatives of the national culture. The last part highlights how after the Second World War the discourse about Jewish Heimatlosigkeit is not at all abandoned but it concerns either the memory of the near past or refers to the condition of contemporary man, for whom it is impossible to clearly define identity based on bonds of belonging as presupposed in the concept of Heimat.
2021
Grazzini, Serena
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/1106295
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