'Mein Eden, lieber Sigismund, öffnet seine Pforten nicht in Amerika': dissenting Jewish images in German popular fiction

Abstract

Germanists in the post-holocaust era have assiduously searched the canon of German literature for other images besides the conventional demonization of the Jew. The legacy of Gustav Freytag’s Veitel Itzig and Wilhelm Raabe’s Moses Freudenstein – two of the most famous of such demonizations – however, remain representative figures for the image of the Jew in 19th century German fiction, although in both novels, other Jewish figures appear which reveal further aspects of anti-Semitic stereotyping.

Keywords

• Antisemitism in literature
• Fiction
• Stereotype (Psychology)
• German literature
• Authors, German
• Symbolism in literature