AcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1Constitutive outsiders1.1 Ambivalences of Kultur and AufklärungConstructions of German identityKultur versus Zivilisation1.2 “Trapped by the image of a rejected self ”—Jews in Germany, German JewsEmancipation and acculturation (1770–1880)Modern anti-Semitism and Jewish dissimilation (1880–1933)The ambivalence of assimilation 501.3 A reluctant country of immigrationFrom emigration to immigrationKultur in the aftermath of non-policy: MultiKulti—Leitkultur—‘Deutschland schafft sich ab’1.4 Literature, identity, and singularityChapter 2Aesthetes between identity and opposition 672.1 The authenticity paradox—Writing between identity and opposition2.2 The aesthete’s retreat: Arthur Schnitzler’s Fräulein Else (1924) versus Navid Kermani’s Kurzmitteilung (2007)The ‘value’ of cultural difference: Arthur Schnitzler and Navid KermaniA conflict of codes: ‘aesthetics of opposition’ versus ‘aesthetics of identity’2.3 The aesthete’s awakening: Beer-Hofmann’s Der Tod Georgs (1900) versus Zaimoglu’s Liebesbrand (2008) 102Jewish aesthete and romantic rebel: Richard Beer-Hofmann and Feridun ZaimogluRealitätsablehnung & experiences of finitudeAesthetics of becoming—The ambivalent rhetoric of bloodConclusionChapter 3City dwellers between difference and indifference3.1 Images of the city: emancipatory visions and spatialized differenceBerlin: image of an unsettled national identityIndifference to differenceThe city as a site of Jewish self-definitionUrban stereotype and spatialized difference3.2 The failure of exemplarity—‘Figures of immanence’:Ludwig Jacobowski’s Werther, der Jude (1892) versus Terezia Mora’s Alle Tage (2004)Exemplarity, identification, alienation‘Figures of immanence’: the atomic individual versus the LeerstelleMetropolitan milieus: ‘the law of the proper’ versus Verletzbarkeit3.3 Disoriented city dwellers—Figures of ‘distanced proximity’:Franz Hessel’s Spazieren in Berlin (1929) versus Emine Sevgi Ozdamar’s “Der Hof im Spiegel” (2001)Reading the cityDisoriented/dis-Oriented city dwellersConclusionChapter 4Family heroes between myth and storytelling4.1 Writing in the shadow of an empire4.2 Family heroes redefined: Joseph Roth’s Radetzkymarsch (1932) versus Dimitre Dinev’s Engelszungen (2003)Storytellers between empires and nations:Joseph Roth and Dimitre Dinev“Listening to the same story”—Heroic grandfathers and the power of fiction“Against the confines of the image”—Un-/antiheroic grandsons and the power of storytelling4.3 “Diaspora’s children”—Heroics of endurance and hope:Joseph Roth’s Hiob (1930) versus Zsusza Bank’s Der Schwimmer (2002)Between East and West—Between pathos and hope: Joseph Roth and Zsuzsa BankCommunities of violence—Communities of silenceAllowing something to be said—Hope emerging from silenceConclusion ConclusionThe fallibility of BildungNotesIntroductionChapter 1: Constitutive outsidersChapter 2: Aesthetes between identity and oppositionChapter 3. City dwellers between difference and indifferenceChapter 4. Family heroes between myth and storytellingConclusion: The fallibility of BildungBibliographyThe first extensive comparison of the German-Jewish literary corpus and contemporary minority writing in GermanCountless literary endeavours by ‘new Germans’ have come into the spotlight of academic research since the turn of the 21st century. Yet ‘minority writing’ and its distinctive renegotiation of traditional concepts of cultural identity are far from a recent phenomenon in German literature. More than a hundred years ago, German-Jewish writers put a clear stamp on German modernism and were intensely engaged in various cultural and political discourses on Jewish identity. This book is the first to unfold literary parallels between these two riveting periods in German cultural history. Drawing on the philosophical oeuvre of Jean-Luc Nancy, a comparative reading of texts by, amongst others, Beer-Hofmann, Kermani, Özdamar, Roth, Schnitzler, and Zaimoglu examines similar literary approaches to the thorny issue of cultural identity in either period, while developing an overarching perspective on the ‘politics of literature’.Countless literary endeavours by ‘new Germans’ have come into the spotlight of academic research since the turn of the 21st century. Yet ‘minority writing’ and its distinctive renegotiation of traditional concepts of cultural identity are far from a recent phenomenon in German literature. More than a hundred years ago, German-Jewish writers put a clear stamp on German modernism and were intensely engaged in various cultural and political discourses on Jewish identity. This book is the first to unfold literary parallels between these two riveting periods in German cultural history. Drawing on the philosophical oeuvre of Jean-Luc Nancy, a comparative reading of texts by, amongst others, Beer-Hofmann, Kermani, Özdamar, Roth, Schnitzler, and Zaimoglu examines similar literary approaches to the thorny issue of cultural identity in either period, while developing an overarching perspective on the ‘politics of literature’.