Module Identifier GE34020  
Module Title GERMAN IDENTITY AND THE JEWISH QUESTION  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Gregory M Moore  
Semester Semester 2  
Course delivery Lecture   18 Hours  
  Seminars / Tutorials   4 Hours  
Assessment Semester Exam   2 Hours (written exam)   60%  
  Semester Assessment   (2 essays of 1500 words each)   40%  
  Supplementary Exam   2 Hours (If no continuous assessment has been submitted, the exam will be 3 hours)   100%  

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able 1) to demonstrate understanding of, and critically engage with, ideas and issues arising from the uniquely complex problem of German and German-Jewish identity from the nineteenth century to the present day; 2) demonstrate that they have consolidated and extended their knowledge of the foundations of modern German and European culture. They will be able 3) to appreciate and evaluate the historical context of the wide variety of texts they study; 4) to carry out independent research; 5) to express themselves clearly, coherently and in a logical fashion, both orally and in writing.

Brief description

This module will provide a historical and critical overview for level 3 students of some of the problems of German national identity, many of which still have resonance today. Students will thereby come to understand what it means (and what it has meant) to be German, and increase their knowledge of the historical roots of the debates and controversies at the heart of modern Germany. Students will explore and analyse a range of texts which are political, social and cultural, as well as literary, and examine such themes as the rise of anti-Semitism and race theory, German-Jewish self-understanding and constructions of German national identity after the Holocaust.

Reading Lists

Books
Aschheim, Steven E. (1982) Brothers and Strangers: The East European Jew in German and German Jewish Consciousness, 1800-1923. Madison
Bauman, Zygmunt. (1989) Modernity and the Holocaust. Cambridge
Boa, Elizabeth. (1996) Kafka: Gender, Class, and Race in the Letters and Fictions. Oxford
Efron, John M. (1994) Defenders of the Race: Jewish Doctors and Race Science in Fin de Siecle Europe. New Haven & London
Field, Geoffrey G. (1981) Evangelist of Race: The Germanic Vision of Houston Stewart Chamberlain. New York
Fulbrook, Mary. (1999) German National Identity after the Holocaust. Cambridge
Gay, Ruth. (1992) The Jews of Germany: A Historical Portrait. New Haven
Gilman, Sander L. (1986) Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews. Baltimore
Gilman, Sander. (1991) The Jew' Body. London, New York
Gilman, Sander L. and Remmler, Karen (eds). (1994) Reemerging Jewish Culture in Germany: Life and Literature since 1989. New York
Gilman, Sander, L. and Zipes. Jack (eds). (1997) The Yale Companion to Jewish Writing and Thought in German Culture, 1096-1996. New Haven
Katz, Jakob. (1980) From Prejudice to Destruction: Anti-Semitism, 1700-1933. Cambridge, MA
Kornberg, Jacques. (1993) Theodor Herzl: From Assimilation to Zionism. Bloomington
Le Rider, Jacques. (1993) Modernity and Crises of Identity: culture and Society in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna. Cambridge
** Recommended Text
Maier, C E. (1988) The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust and German National Identity. Cambridge, MA
Meyer, Michael A. (1967) The Origins of the Modern Jew: Jewish Identity and European Culture in Germany, 1749-1824. Detroit
Mosse, George L. (1978) Towards the Final Solution: A History of European Racism. London
Niven, Bill. (2002) Facing the Nazi Past. United Germany and the Legacy of the Third Reich. London
Och, Gunnar. (1995) Imago judaica: Juden und Judentum im Spiegel der deutschen Literatur, 1750-1812. Wurzburg
Pulzer, Peter. (1988) The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria. 2nd. London
Reinharz, Jehuda & Schatberg, Walter (eds). (1985) The Jewish Response to German Culture from the Enlightenment to the Second world War. Hanover, NH
Robertson, Ritchie. (1985) Kafka: Judaism, Literature and Politics. Oxford
Robertson, Ritchie & Timms, Edward (eds). (1997) Theodor Herzl and the Origins of Zionism. Edinburgh
Rose, Paul Lawrence. (1992) Wagner: Race and Revolution. London
Said, Edward. (1978) Orientalism. London
Schwertfeger, Ruth. (1991) Else Lasker-Schuler; Expressionist, woman, Jew and Exile. Oxford
Sorkin, David. (1987) The Transformation of German Jewry, 1780-1840. New York and Oxford
Stern, Fritz. (1974) The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology. Berkeley, CA