Few people thought as deeply or incisively about Germany, Jewish
identity, and the Holocaust as Hannah Arendt and Gershom Scholem. And,
as this landmark volume reveals, much of that thinking was developed
in dialogue, through more than two decades of correspondence.
Arendt and Scholem met in 1932 in Berlin and
quickly bonded over their mutual admiration for and friendship with
Walter Benjamin. They began exchanging letters in 1939, and their
lively correspondence continued until 1963, when Scholem’s vehement
disagreement with Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem led to a rupture
that would last until Arendt’s death a dozen years later. The years
of their friendship, however, yielded a remarkably rich bounty of
letters: together, they try to come to terms with being both German
and Jewish, the place and legacy of Germany before and after the
Holocaust, the question of what it means to be Jewish in a
post-Holocaust world, and more. Walter Benjamin is a constant
presence, as his life and tragic death are emblematic of the very
questions that preoccupied the pair. Like any collection of letters,
however, the book also has its share of lighter moments: accounts of
travels, gossipy dinner parties, and the quotidian details that make
up life even in the shadow of war and loss. In
a world that continues to struggle with questions of nationalism,
identity, and difference, Arendt and Scholem remain crucial thinkers.
This volume offers us a way to see them, and the development of their
thought, anew.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780226487618
Publisert
2018
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
University of Chicago Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter