Between German and Hebrew : The Counterlanguages of Gershom Scholem, Werner Kraft and Ludwig Strauss

This book traces the German-Hebrew contact zones in which Gershom Scholem, Werner Kraft and Ludwig Strauss lived and produced their creative work in early twentieth-century Germany and later in British Mandate Palestine after their voluntary or forced migration in the 1920s and 1930s. Set in shifting historical contexts and literary debates {u2013} the notion of the German vernacular nation, Hebraism and Jewish Revival in Weimar Germany, the crisis of language in modernist literature, and the fledgling multilingual communities in Jerusalem, the writings of Scholem, Kraft and Strauss emerge as unique forms of counterlanguage. The three chapters of the book are dedicated to Scholem{u2019}s Hebraist lamentation, Kraft{u2019}s Germanist steadfastness and Strauss{u2019}s polyglot dialogue, respectively. The examination of their correspondences, diaries, scholarship and literary oeuvres demonstrates how counteractive writing practices helped confront concrete and metaphorical crises of language to produce compelling alternatives to literary silence, amnesia or paralysis that were prompted by cultural marginality and dislocation. -- From publisher's website Acknowledgements Table of Contents Note on Transliteration Abbreviations of Selected Primary Sources Introduction I Gershom Scholem: Language between Lamentation and Retaliation 1 The Lamentation of Language Itself Scholem, Benjamin and Buber: Mind, Revelation and “Erlebnis” in Language Border Dialectic and Tradition 2 From Lamentation to Retaliation Germany: The Rise of Zionism and the Fall of Hebrew Jerusalem: Hebrew between Victory and Catastrophe 3 Agnon: Hebrew at the Crossroads 4 Conclusion II Werner Kraft: “Singing a Lost World” 1 Linguistic Dystopia and Restitution in Germany The Odd Couple: Rudolf Borchardt and Karl Kraus and the First World War Kraft and the German-Jewish Predicament Student and Librarian between the First World War and 1933 2 Exile in Jerusalem “Writing into the Void” “Imaginary Companions” and a German “Ark” in Exile 3 A German Ark in Jerusalem: Language, Criticism and Translation Karl Kraus: Positive Language Critique Rudolf Borchardt: Language, Decay and Restoration 4 Conclusion III Ludwig Strauss: Polyglot Dialogue and Parody 1 Hebraism and Dialogue in Germany Political Writings: Language and Mediation The Mediator: Identity, Literature and Language Poetological Treatises: Poetry as Dialogue 2 Polyglossia and Parody in Palestine Mutual Echoing: Leah Goldberg, Language Renewal and Translation Messianic Reverberation: Linguistic Passage and Homecoming 3 Conclusion Conclusion: The Eyes and Ears of Language Appendices Appendix A Appendix B Bibliography 1 Archival Sources 2 Published Sources Index This book traces the German-Hebrew language contact-zones in which Gershom Scholem, Werner Kraft and Ludwig Strauss created in Germany and in Jerusalem in the 1920s and 30s. Set in the contexts of cultural marginality, modernist literature, and linguistic dislocation, Barouch exposes the writings of Scholem, Kraft and Strauss as unique forms of counterlanguage: Hebraist lamentation, Germanist steadfastness and polyglot dialogue, respectively Traces the German-Hebrew language contact-zones in which Gershom Scholem, Werner Kraft and Ludwig Strauss created in Germany and in Jerusalem in the 1920s and 30s. The author exposes the writings of Scholem, Kraft and Strauss as unique forms of counterlanguage: Hebraist lamentation, Germanist steadfastness and polyglot dialogue, respectively.