Wilhelm Herzberg's Jewish Family Papers (1868)

Interdisciplinary Readings of a Forgotten Bestseller

Manja Herrmann

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9783110297713
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia del XIX secolo

Wilhelm Herzberg's novel Jewish Family Papers, which was first published under a pseudonym in 1868, was one of the bestselling German-Jewish books of the nineteenth century. Its numerous editions, reviews, and translations – into Dutch, English, and Hebrew – are ample proof of its impact. Herzberg's Jewish Family Papers picks up on some of the most central contemporary philosophical, religious, and social debates and discusses aspects such as emancipation, antisemitism, Jewishness and Judaism, nationalism, and the Christian religion and culture, as well as gender roles. So far, however, the novel has not received the scholarly attention it so assuredly deserves. This bilingual volume is the first attempt to acknowledge how this outstanding source can contribute to our understanding of German-Jewish literature and culture in the nineteenth century and beyond. Through interdisciplinary readings, it will discuss this forgotten bestseller, embedding it within various contemporary discourses: religion, literature, emancipation, nationalism, culture, transnationalism, gender, theology, and philosophy.

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction – Wilhelm Herzberg’s Jüdische Familienpapiere. Briefe eines Missionairs (1868): Interdisciplinary Readings of a Bestseller
• Ein Paradebeispiel der neo-orthodoxen Belletristik im 19. Jahrhundert? Ein Überblick zur Publikations- und Rezeptionsgeschichte der Jüdischen Familienpapiere von Wilhelm Herzberg
• The Hebrew Translations of Wilhelm Herzberg’s Jewish Family Papers: Interpretation and Reception in Multiple Layers
• The Translatability of Jewish Cultures: Wilhelm Herzberg’s Jewish Family Papers in the Transatlantic Context
• “We Jewish Women Are Free”: Concepts of Womanhood in Wilhelm Herzberg’s Novel Jewish Family Papers
• Wilhelm Herzbergs Binnenerzählung „Das Mädchen von Tanger“ als Darstellung eines authentischen Judentums
• „Rückkehr heißt das Wort“ – Die Rückkehr zum Judentum in den Familienromanen Jüdische Familienpapiere Wilhelm Herzbergs und Dray doyres Yoel Mastboyms
• Warum Judenmission misslingen muss: Mission und Konversion in Wilhelm Herzbergs Roman Jüdische Familienpapiere. Briefe eines Missionairs
• The Narrative of Philosophical Reasoning: Mendelssohn’s Jerusalem in Wilhelm Herzberg’s Jewish Family Papers
• Eine religionsphilosophische Emanzipationsdebatte: Der Roman Jüdische Familienpapiere von Wilhelm Herzberg
• Appendix
• Dr. Wilhelm Herzberg (1827–1897). Eine lückenhafte Biographie
• List of Contributors
• Index