Son of Spinoza

Georg Brandes and Modern Jewish Cosmopolitanism

Søren Blak Hjortshøj

• Publisher: Aarhus University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9788772190181
• eBook ISBN:
  9788772194929
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Son of Spinoza sheds light on the interconnectedness between Jewishness and cosmopolitanism in the oeuvre of the Danish-Jewish intellectual Georg Brandes (1842-1927). Today, the historical tradition of interconnecting these concepts has largely been forgotten, although the construction of a somewhat synonymous relation between them became a key structuring element of modern antisemitism and later Nazi ideology. In this context, Georg Brandes–his writing and practice–stands as a crucial European cosmopolitan archive, due to the great influence he enjoyed throughout the European continent. Son of Spinoza challenges the presentation of Brandes in previous research as a so-called assimilated Jew who distanced himself from Jewishness, instead recognizing Brandes' own self-identification as a Spinozist cosmopolitan and his depiction of himself and other modern Jews as 'sons of Spinoza'.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Brandes’ Early Writings and the Transnational Vision
• Chapter 2: The Stranger as Ideal in the Fin-De-Siècle Period
• Chapter 3: Brandes’ Distancing Strategies of De-Judaizing and De-Cosmopolitanization in his Later Writings
• Chapter 4: Brandes’ Re-Interpretations of the Athens vs. Jerusalem Dichotomy
• Chapter 5: Brandes’ Spinozist Cosmopolitanism in his Later Writings
• Discussion: Brandes’ Representation of Jewishness as a Vital Archive for Today’s Cosmopolitanisms
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Index of Names
• Backcover