Les Juifs de la Mitteleuropa : le « ciment » perdu

Abstract

From the expulsion from paradise to the expulsion from hell: this parable signifies the fate of the “cement” of the Mittel-European tradition: Central Europe’s Jewish intellectual élite. It is clear, however, that its body has never been homogeneous; indeed, the dissolution of this “cement” has showed in advance – in all its metaphorical drama – the itinerary of the Western civilization, its identity crises, its processes of resistance and assimilation. We intend to approach our subject through the paths of the literary Mitteleuropa, from the Habsburg mythogenesis to the unspeakable confusions of the post-Nazi Austria.