Becoming Modern: The German-Jewish
Experience
An Interdisciplinary Symposium
Sunday, March 30,
2008
Van Pelt Library – Sixth Floor
3420 Walnut Street
University of Pennsylvania Campus
(entrance on Locust Walk between 34th and 36th Streets)
About the Symposium
In a recent book, Yuri Slezkine described the twentieth century as a "Jewish Age" -- to be modern would essentially mean to be a Jew. In German historical and cultural studies, this linkage has long been made -- only in reference to the last years of the German monarchy and the time of the Weimar Republic. Indeed, what has become known as "modern" German culture -- reflected in literature, music, and the visual arts and in a multitude of public media -- has been more often than not assigned to Jewish authorship or Jewish subjects. But what do authorship and subject mean in this case? Do we locate the German-Jewish experience as the driving force of this new "modernity," or is our understanding of this experience the result of this new "modern" world?
A group of scholars, drawn from the United States and abroad, will
explore the relationship of "modernity" and the German-Jewish
experience in this day-long symposium that will be open to the general
public. The symposium will be accompanied by a musical event, and an
exhibition in Penn's rare book division, Van Pelt Library.
Schedule
10:30-11:00 Breakfast
Exhibition from the private collection of
Erna Weill (sculptures and documents) will be open for viewing during
breaks and reception. Curated by Violet Lutz.
Click here for more information regarding the exhibition
(PDF).
11:00-11:15 Welcoming Remarks by Ann Matter (Associate Dean for Arts and Letters of the School of Arts and Sciences), Paul Guyer (Interim Chair, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures), Beth Wenger (Director, Program in Jewish Studies), Liliane Weissberg, Kerry Wallach and Gabriella Skwara (Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures)
11:15-1:15 Panel One: Literary Subjects
Moderator: Eric Jarosinski (University
of Pennsylvania)
- Rochelle Tobias (Johns Hopkins University)
“Schlemihls and Writers: The Modern Jewish Subject” - Susannah Gottlieb (Northwestern University)
“Another Look at Bildung: Arendt, Heidegger, and Kafka” - David Suchoff (Colby College)
“‘The Voice of Jakob’: Kafka and the Jewish Languages of New York”
1:15-2:30 Lunch Break
2:30-3:50 Panel Two: Historicizing the Jew
Moderator: Warren Breckman (University of
Pennsylvania)
- Scott Spector (University of Michigan)
“Becoming Savage? The Truth About Jewish Ritual Murder” - Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth University)
“From Bonn to Mecca: The Emergence of Modern Jewish Philislamism”
3:50-4:20 Coffee Break
4:20-6:20 Panel Three: Thinking Images
Moderator: Jean-Michel Rabaté (University of
Pennsylvania)
- Peter Fenves (Northwestern University)
“The Mathematical Messiah: Scholem and Benjamin Around 1916” - Lisa Saltzman (Bryn Mawr College)
“Berlin Childhoods: On Benjamin and Salomon, History and Images” - Todd Presner (UCLA)
“Remapping German-Jewish Intellectual History: Benjamin, Cartography, and Modernity”
6:20-7:45 Reception
6:45 Berlin Cabaret Songs (Concert sponsored by University of Pennsylvania Libraries)
Performed by Andrew Hauze (piano) and Tammy
Coil (mezzo-soprano)
We would like to thank the following for their generous support: University of Pennsylvania Dean’s Fund, Jewish Studies Program, University Research Foundation, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Penn Humanities Forum, Department of Religious Studies, Program in Comparative Literature, Department of the History of Art.