Papers by Jeffrey S Librett
Review essay: On the matter of method in modernist German-Jewish studies1
The German Quarterly, 2003
(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) ... Felman, Linda E., ... more (ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) ... Felman, Linda E., and Diane Orendi, eds. Evolving Jewish Identities in German Culture: Borders and Crossings. Westport: Praeger, 2000. 232 pp. $62.95 hardcover. Fuchs, Anne. A Space of Anxiety: Dislocation and Abjection in Modern German-Jewish Literature. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999. 200 pp. $42.00 paperback. Isenberg, Noah. Between Redemption and Doom: the Strains of German-Jewish Modernism. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. 232 pp. $40.00 hardcover. Lang, Berel. The Future of the Holocaust: Between History and Memory. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. 198 pp. $46.50 hardcover; $18.95 paperback. Mosse, George L. Confronting History: A Memoir. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.236 pp. $27.95 hardcover. Schruffj Helene. Wechselwirkungen. Deutsch-Judische Identitat in erzahlender Prosa der "Zweiten Generation." Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2000. 262 pp. DM 78.00 paperback. I My working hypothesis in what follows is that both modernist anti-Semitism (e.g., in Wagner) and Jewish renewal (e.g., in Buber) are generally based on the ideological (and more specifically political-theological) misconstrual of the modern rise of materiality as a resurgence of Judaism. This misconstrual is in turn historically rooted in the traditional Christian (typo-logical) association of Jews and Judaism with the materiality of the "dead letter."2 Because following this tradition pre-modern gentile Europe constructs the Jews as lacking in appropriate spirituality, and so as mired in materiality, when the modernist epoch arrives-with its various materialist doctrines, its ever-intensifying scientific assault on traditional ideals, and its industrial massiveness and urban masses-it is not surprising that the features of modern life tend to be brought into connection with the Jews. While the materiality associated with advanced modernity is sometimes linked to the Jews in an affirmative mode, the sacrificial desire to make the Jews responsible for the negative aspects of this materiality is central to what may well have been the twentieth century's most globally destructive historical paroxysm. It is with a particular interest in this anxiety about materiality in all of its forms-which I take to comprise the center of the modernist "Jewish question"-that I approach the scholarly studies under review here. In order to organize these contributions so as to be able moreover to indicate how the different methods they adopt always both give them limited access to, and partially exclude them from, the topic of materiality which is so important for German-Jewish modernities and modernisms, I will consider them under the rubrics of historicist, psychological (which is represented here more narrowly by the psychoanalytic), and moral (or ethical) studies. As I will show, historicist studies tend to engage with, but also domesticate, materiality by positing the radical objectivity-as opposed to, or as dominating, the subjectivity-of their inquiry, by privileging amongst the various psychic agencies the standpoint of the ego, and by limiting their temporal concern to the dimension of the past. Psychoanalytic studies approach materiality-in an equally partial way-by the opposite path: they posit that their object is essentially a subjective one, and they privilege more specifically the psychic agency of the id, while focusing in temporal terms on the present, for example as the eternal present of the ostensibly timeless unconscious, which would include the present of unconscious mem-ory and desire. Finally, ethical studies attempt to maintain their coherence by applying their attention neither to objects nor to subjects per se but above all to the logic governing decisions, speaking for and of only the superego, and looking to the future, rather than to the present or the past. Having illustrated the strengths and weaknesses of these ways of dealing with things human in their materiality, I will close with a summary remark concerning the degree to which the studies examined here explicitly thematize the modernists' ways of linking materiality to the Jews. …
Review essay: On the matter of method in modernist German-Jewish studies1
(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) ... Felman, Linda E., ... more (ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) ... Felman, Linda E., and Diane Orendi, eds. Evolving Jewish Identities in German Culture: Borders and Crossings. Westport: Praeger, 2000. 232 pp. $62.95 hardcover. Fuchs, Anne. A Space of Anxiety: Dislocation and Abjection in Modern German-Jewish Literature. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999. 200 pp. $42.00 paperback. Isenberg, Noah. Between Redemption and Doom: the Strains of German-Jewish Modernism. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. 232 pp. $40.00 hardcover. Lang, Berel. The Future of the Holocaust: Between History and Memory. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. 198 pp. $46.50 hardcover; $18.95 paperback. Mosse, George L. Confronting History: A Memoir. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.236 pp. $27.95 hardcover. Schruffj Helene. Wechselwirkungen. Deutsch-Judische Identitat in erzahlender Prosa der "Zweiten Generation." Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2000. 262 pp. DM 78.00 paperback. I My working hypothesis in what follows is that both modernist anti-Semitism (e.g., in Wagner) and Jewish renewal (e.g., in Buber) are generally based on the ideological (and more specifically political-theological) misconstrual of the modern rise of materiality as a resurgence of Judaism. This misconstrual is in turn historically rooted in the traditional Christian (typo-logical) association of Jews and Judaism with the materiality of the "dead letter."2 Because following this tradition pre-modern gentile Europe constructs the Jews as lacking in appropriate spirituality, and so as mired in materiality, when the modernist epoch arrives-with its various materialist doctrines, its ever-intensifying scientific assault on traditional ideals, and its industrial massiveness and urban masses-it is not surprising that the features of modern life tend to be brought into connection with the Jews. While the materiality associated with advanced modernity is sometimes linked to the Jews in an affirmative mode, the sacrificial desire to make the Jews responsible for the negative aspects of this materiality is central to what may well have been the twentieth century's most globally destructive historical paroxysm. It is with a particular interest in this anxiety about materiality in all of its forms-which I take to comprise the center of the modernist "Jewish question"-that I approach the scholarly studies under review here. In order to organize these contributions so as to be able moreover to indicate how the different methods they adopt always both give them limited access to, and partially exclude them from, the topic of materiality which is so important for German-Jewish modernities and modernisms, I will consider them under the rubrics of historicist, psychological (which is represented here more narrowly by the psychoanalytic), and moral (or ethical) studies. As I will show, historicist studies tend to engage with, but also domesticate, materiality by positing the radical objectivity-as opposed to, or as dominating, the subjectivity-of their inquiry, by privileging amongst the various psychic agencies the standpoint of the ego, and by limiting their temporal concern to the dimension of the past. Psychoanalytic studies approach materiality-in an equally partial way-by the opposite path: they posit that their object is essentially a subjective one, and they privilege more specifically the psychic agency of the id, while focusing in temporal terms on the present, for example as the eternal present of the ostensibly timeless unconscious, which would include the present of unconscious mem-ory and desire. Finally, ethical studies attempt to maintain their coherence by applying their attention neither to objects nor to subjects per se but above all to the logic governing decisions, speaking for and of only the superego, and looking to the future, rather than to the present or the past. Having illustrated the strengths and weaknesses of these ways of dealing with things human in their materiality, I will close with a summary remark concerning the degree to which the studies examined here explicitly thematize the modernists' ways of linking materiality to the Jews. …
Enlightenment beyond Teleology: Religious Familiality and the Fundamental Gift in G.E. Lessing
German Studies Review
ABSTRACT:Through readings of Nathan the Wise and The Education of the Human Race, I argue that Le... more ABSTRACT:Through readings of Nathan the Wise and The Education of the Human Race, I argue that Lessing does not, as is often supposed, contribute to the foundations of nineteenth century historicism, but—like some other advanced Enlighteners—criticizes it in advance. He rejects a teleological narrative of history and replaces it with a circular notion of history as infinite repetition. What repeats itself in history, without end, is the splitting apart of matter and spirit, and the task of reassembling their unity through radical generosity, whose most appropriate site Lessing understands to be the religious family or family of religions.
Enlightenment beyond Teleology: Religious Familiality and the Fundamental Gift in G.E. Lessing
German Studies Review, 2018
ABSTRACT:Through readings of Nathan the Wise and The Education of the Human Race, I argue that Le... more ABSTRACT:Through readings of Nathan the Wise and The Education of the Human Race, I argue that Lessing does not, as is often supposed, contribute to the foundations of nineteenth century historicism, but—like some other advanced Enlighteners—criticizes it in advance. He rejects a teleological narrative of history and replaces it with a circular notion of history as infinite repetition. What repeats itself in history, without end, is the splitting apart of matter and spirit, and the task of reassembling their unity through radical generosity, whose most appropriate site Lessing understands to be the religious family or family of religions.
Of the Sublime: Presence in Question
Page 1. ESSAYS BY JEAN-FRANCOIS COURTINE MICHEL DEGUY ELIANE ESCOUBAS PHILIPPE LACOUE-LABARTHE JE... more Page 1. ESSAYS BY JEAN-FRANCOIS COURTINE MICHEL DEGUY ELIANE ESCOUBAS PHILIPPE LACOUE-LABARTHE JEAN-FRANCOIS LYOIARD LOUIS MARIN JEAN-LUC NANCY JACOB ROGOZINSKI Translated and with an Afterword by Jeffrey S. Librett Page 2. ...
Nazi Psychoanalysis. By Laurence A. Rickels. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002. 3 volumes. 328, 368, 392 pages. $54.95 (hardcover)/$19.95 each
Monatshefte, 2004
... In his essay The subjects of community: aspiration, memory, resistance 1918 1945, Russell... more ... In his essay The subjects of community: aspiration, memory, resistance 1918 1945, Russell A. Berman provides a concise survey that includes Max Weber, Brecht, Gundolf, Ernst Jünger, Thomas Mann, Döblin, Broch, and Canetti. ...
III.1. Moses
Handbuch Literatur & Psychoanalyse, 2017
8. Neo-Romantic Modernism and Daoism: Martin Buber on the “Teaching” as Fulfilment
China in the German Enlightenment, 2016
8. Neo-Romantic Modernism and Daoism: Martin Buber on the “Teaching” as Fulfilment
China in the German Enlightenment, 2016
Jeffrey S. Librett, The Rhetoric of Cultural Dialogue: Jews and Germans from Moses Mendelssohn to Richard Wagner and Beyond
The sense of the world
... The sense of the world. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Nancy, Jean-Luc. PUBLISHER: Uni... more ... The sense of the world. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Nancy, Jean-Luc. PUBLISHER: University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1997. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 0816626103 ). VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): xxvi, 206 p. ...
e-Portique. Revue de philosophie et sciences humaine, Sep 1, 2006
Writing (as) the Perverse Body in Friedrich Schlegel's Lucinde
Thinking Bodies
Tarihin ilk düzenli ordularından günümüze askeri strateji, teknolojik gelişmişlik düzeyi, ikmal d... more Tarihin ilk düzenli ordularından günümüze askeri strateji, teknolojik gelişmişlik düzeyi, ikmal desteği, askerlerin niteliği, saha ve manevra kabiliyetleri gibi birçok faktör yanında askeri psikoloji de savaşın galibini ya da mağlubunu belirlemiştir. I. Dünya Savaşı'nda cephelerin sivilleri de içine alacak şekilde genişlemesiyle birlikte sivil kayıpların artması sonucu, yeni bir psikoloji alanı ortaya çıkmıştır. Devlet yöneticileri, kamuoyunun ve halkının desteğini kazanmak için savaşın toplum tarafından nasıl algılandığı ile daha çok ilgilenmişler, toplumları savaşın gerekliliği ve haklılığına ikna etmek için söylevlerin yanı sıra görselliğe hitap eden propaganda unsurlarını da kullanmışlardır. 20. yüzyılın başından günümüze, afişler ve posterler propaganda aracı olarak toplumsal algının yönetilmesi için kullanılmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, II. Dünya Savaşı'nda propaganda ve algı yönetiminin afiş ve posterler aracılığı ile nasıl yürütüldüğünü örnekleriyle ortaya
The subject in the age of world-formation (mondialisation)
Innovations in Psychoanalysis, 2019
The dimensions defined by the opposition between madness and reason and by this opposition's unca... more The dimensions defined by the opposition between madness and reason and by this opposition's uncanny double-the disciplinary conflict between history and philosophy-do not of course alone determine even the most general discursive situation within which the phenomenon of the "borderline personality disorder" appears. The opposition between reason and madness is doubled and shadowed also by that between reason and religion, which increasingly assumes during the nineteenth century the more positivist form of a debate between science and religion. Unreason therefore assumes in modernity the form not just of madness but also of faith qua religious faith, or more generally irrationally grounded persuasion. 1 After all, the period of the "great confinement," the seventeenth century, is the period not just of French neo-classicism but also of the Reformation's consolidation, the Thirty Years War, and the Treaty of Westfalia (1648). This treaty can be said to "confine" religion when it confirms the principle of the subordination of church to state, radically inverting the medieval European theopolitical order. With the establishment of absolute monarchy, the seventeenth century thus unwittingly prepares the stage for Enlightenment discourses of bourgeois tolerance (the insane "asylum" of religion being the private sphere such tolerance posits as sacrosanct). 2 And it is certainly not by chance that the subordination of religious irrationality to the rationality of absolutist raison d'état roughly coincides in time with the "great confinement" of unreason. The privatization of religion (through separation of church and state) that follows the
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Papers by Jeffrey S Librett