Ambivalence of Foreign Perception.
Interpretations of Jewish Assimilation in German Literature since the Enlightenment.
Dissertation project by Anika Reichwald
Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation within the framework of the project "Imitation - Assimilation - Transformation".
This dissertation project examines the topic of Jewish assimilation and its extra-Jewish concepts and interpretations. First, there is the question of the perception, description and representation of Jewish assimilation coming from outside. Secondly, there is the question of the valuation, moralisation and politicisation of the phenomenon from the same external perspective. It is thus about the forms and functions, poiesis and politics in the non-Jewish perception of Jewish assimilation. The subject of the project is thus the controversial interpretation of Jewish assimilation in German-speaking Europe: its perception in German literature. Using literary and journalistic texts by non-Jewish authors since the Enlightenment, the aspect of description on the one hand and the aspect of evaluation or politicisation on the other will be elaborated. In addition, the socio-cultural versatility of the assimilation theme becomes apparent in the context of discourses that determined society in the 19th century.