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Mapping of the other: Lion Feuchtwanger's topographies of the orient

Article Abstract:

Lion Feuchtwanger outlines Jews as Orientals with an Eastern flair rather than Germans in his 1925 book "Jud Suss". The doomed court Jew of 1738, a financial advisor, never converts to Christianity and maintains his distance from others. The German-Jewish intellectual with oriental wisdom stands in sharp contrast to the despised outsider of later historical events, despite the decidedly anti-semitic climate of the early 20th century. Feuchtwanger's noble intentions and political optimism certainly backfires on this occasion.

Jews, Jewish persecution, Feuchtwanger, Lion

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Gegenwartskritik und nostalgische Ruckgriffe: die Abdankung der Frau als Objekt mannlichen Begehrens und die Erotisierung der Kindfrau in Botho Strauss' 'Paare Passanten.'

Article Abstract:

Botho Strauss bemoans unworthy female images by portraying distasteful masses of materialistic women, a threat to male identity and intellectual culture. Instead, the author moves toward the ideal of a child-woman with all the appeal of gender ambiguity, establishing himself as an aesthetic modernist. Strauss combines the critique of patriarchic enlightenment with anti-female descriptions, not necessarily a contradiction of terms.

Analysis, Gender identity, Strauss, Botho

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