Title: Job as Alter Ego: The Bible, Ancient Jewish Discourse, and Exile Literature
Abstract: Since the beginnings of Western literature the Hebrew Bible-together with the Classics has supplied scores of writers with the material for their poetry, dramas, and narratives. In the eighteenth century, when Henry Fielding, in jocular fashion but with serious intent, compared the Classics to a common grazing ground on which each writer could fatten his muse,' he could have described the Bible as a similar pasture. In German literature Jews and non-Jews alike have feasted on the themes and personae of the Hebrew Bible, other ancient texts, and apocryphal writings, reinterpreting the sources according to contemporary philosophical and aesthetic sensibilities. A few examples will suffice. In Der gepryfte Abraham Wieland transformed the stark encounter between the Patriarch and his God into a sentimental Richardsonian poetic family saga; Klopstock wrote an undramatic drama, Adams Tod; Hebbel, in two successive plays Judith and Herodes und Mariamne, drew upon ancient events as presumptive proof for his dramatic theories; Otto Ludwig commemorated Jewish heroism in Makkabder.2 And, as might have been expected, some writers turned their Jewish sources against the Jews and inserted prejudicial remarks into their works. Wilhelm Schtifer, whose speech Die deutsche Judenfrage (1923) attained some notoriety during the Weimar Republic, envenomed the Vorspiel of an even earlier drama Jakob und Esau, a modern version of the Biblical tale, with the same anti-Semitic stereotypes.3 Not surprisingly German-Jewish writers in search of context frequently turned to the Bible and other Jewish sources. Their resulting works range across periods and genres of German literature, from lyric poetrye.g., Heinrich Heine's Hebraiische Melodien-
Publication Year: 1990
Publication Date: 1990-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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