Gradually receiving legal rights from the 18th century onwards, Jews in Germany and Austria adapted to their surrounding culture with success but also with increasing strain as anti-Semitism gathered pace. This title investigates how tensions were articulated in literary works, by both Jews and Gentile authors, from the Enlightenment to the 1930s.

Introduction ; Enlightenment; German Jewry before Emancipation; How the Enlightenment saw the Jews; Lessing and Toleration; Emancipation: Dohm versus Humboldt; Moses Mendelssohn and the Rational Jew; Mendelssohns Legacy ; Liberalism; Jews and Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century; Schnitzler: Liberalism and Irony; The European Humanism of Stefan Zweig; Freud: Science versus Religion ; Antisemitism; Varieties of Antisemitism; Literary Images of the Jew ; Assimilation; The Meaning of Assimilation; Self-Hatred; Hyperacculturation ; Dissimilation; The Jewish Renaissance; The Eastern Jews; The Jew as Oriental ; Zionism ; Abbreviations ; Select Bibliography

... engaging reading of the Enlightenment ... as a study of representations of Jewish identities, Robertson's work offers a well-versed survey and provides a comprehensive view of the topic that leaves only the field of postwar German-Jewish literature untouched. * The Jewish Quarterly Review *Introduces non-Germans to well and lesser-known German literary figures from 1749 to 1939 and to the answers they had to the so-called 'Jewish Question'. * Religion and the Arts *A work of outstanding thoroughness and scholarship. * The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies *Eminently readable and accessible, this study is destined to become the standard survey of the topic. * Modern Language Quarterly *Robertson aims to give a broad synthesis of nearly two centuries of literary history, and it is difficult to imagine a book that does it better. * Modern Language Quarterly *He [Robertson] recognizes that hostility to Jews had many sources ... This flexibility enables Robertson to provide a sensitive analysis of German writers about Jews. * James J. Sheehan, Times Literary Supplement *This is an excellent introduction to the literary treatment of Jews and the Jewish question, accessible enough for beginners, interesting and challenging enough for experts. * James J. Sheehan, Times Literary Supplement *Robertson is a careful and astute reader, sensitive to the nuances of language and style, alert to historical connections, and able to make useful comparisons across a wide range of European literature. * James J. Sheehan, Times Literary Supplement *Robertson's is a magisterial work. He has read everything and summarised it well. * Anthony Julius, The Times *