Germans and Jews

This introductory course will examine the fraught relationship between Germans (and Austrians) and Jews in Germanophone writing across genres from the Enlightenment to the mid- 20th century. We will consider writing by Jewish authors, images of Jews, and the themes of Jewishness and Germanness, emancipation, assimilation, anti-semitism and Zionism. Students will learn analytic reading, writing and research skills. Texts by Lessing, Mendelsohn, Veit, von Arnim, Heine, Marx, Droste-Hülshoff, Lasker-Schüler, Kafka, and Arendt. Readings and discussion in English.