Martha B. Helfer

Natural anti-semitism: Stifter's 'Abdias'

This essay analyzes the discursive construction of „the Jew” in conjunction with nature metaphors in Stifter’s Abdias, and argues that the novella inscribes an anti-assimilationist political agenda. Read as a document in the debate about the „Jewish question,” Abdias is a cautionary text about the Judaizing of Austrian society: its nature, its economy, and its art.ZusammenfassungDer Aufatz analysiert die diskursive Darstellung der Figur des Juden in Verbindung mit Naturmetaphern in Stifters Abdias. Als politisches Dokument in der aktuellen Debatte zur jüdischen Emanzipation (die sogenannte „Judenfrage”) gelesen, spricht sich die Novelle gegen die Assimilation aus. Der Text warnt vor dem Einzug „des Jüdischen” in die österreichische Gesellschaft. In diesem Text bildet „der Jude” die Grundlage der österreichischen Natur, der österreichischen Wirtschaft und der österreichischen Kunst.

Commitment and Compassion

The writer, scientist, philosopher, and radical democrat Georg Buchner (1813-1837) occupies a unique place in the cultural legacy of the German-speaking countries. Born into an epoch of inevitable, yet arrested historical transition, Buchner produced a small but exceptionally rich body of work. This collection of essays in English and in German considers the full spectrum of his writings, the political pamphlet Der Hessische Landbote, the dramas Danton’s Tod, Leonce und Lena, Woyzeck, and the fragmentary narrative Lenz, as well as the letters, the philosophical lectures on Descartes and Spinoza, and the scientific texts. The essays examine connections between these works, study texts in detail, debate ways of editing them, and trace their reception in contemporary literature and film. The novel readings presented here not only celebrate Buchner on the eve of his bicentenary birthday but also insert this untimely figure into discussions of the revolution-restoration dynamic and realism in poetics and politics.