Karen Remmler - Böcker

This anthology features a diverse and compelling array of writings from prominent Jewish authors in Germany today. The writers included here-Katja Behrens, Maxim Biller, Esther Dischereit, and Barbara Honigmann-did not experience the Holocaust firsthand, though their works continually explore the meaning of it as it is remembered and forgotten in contemporary Germany. From different perspectives these authors offer incisive reflections on German-Jewish relations today. They wrestle in particular with the strangeness of living in a country where unencumbered relationships between Germans and Jews are rare. Also surfacing in their writings are the many foundations and challenges to modern Jewish identity in Germany, including the vicissitudes of gender roles, and the experience of emigration, intergenerational conflict, and sexuality. Contemporary Jewish Writing in Germany not only features a set of engaging stories but also encourages a deeper understanding of the experiences of Jews in Germany today.

How can there by a Jewish culture in today's Germany? Since the fall of the Wall, there has been a substantial increase in the visibility of Jews in German culture, not only an increase in the number of Jews living there, but, more importantly, an explosion of cultural activity. Jews are writing and making films about the central question of Jewish life after the Shoah.Given the xenophobia that has marked Germany since reunification, the appearance of a new Jewish is both surprising and normalizing. Even more striking than the reappearance of Jewish culture in England after the expulsion and massacres of the Middle Ages, the presence of a new generation of Jewish writers in Germany is a sign of the complexity and tenacity of modern Jewish life in the Diaspora.Edited by Sander L. Gilman and Karen Remmler and featuring works by many of the most noted specialists on the subject, including Susan Niemann, Y. Michael Bodemann, Marion Kaplan, Katharina Ochse, Robin Ostow, Rafael Seligmann, Jack Zipes, Jeffrey Peck, Kizer Walker, and Esther Dischereit, this volume explores the questions and doubts surrounding the revitalization of Jewish life in Germany. The writers cover such diverse topics as the social and institutional role that Jews now play, the role of religion in daily life, and gender and culture in post-Wall Jewish writing.

Despite growing awareness of feminist sensibilities, single women remain polarized in the popular imagination. Either old maids or power women, they remain defined in relation to men--women who can't get, or, unnaturally, women who don't want a man. Through extensive historical research as well as interviews with dozens of women from San Francisco, London, and Helsinki, Tuula Gordon here forcefully exposes the artificial nature of this perceived dichotomy. The single woman is mistakenly seen to be a product of the twentieth century. Drawing on figures as diverse as Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, and the Amazons, Gordon brings to light a powerful tradition of single womanhood and calls the marginality of single women into question. Conceptions of woman are important in shaping the possibilities and limitations of single women. A heterogeneous group in terms of occupation, ethnic grouping and sexual orientation, the women portrayed in this book serve to emphasize the diversity of single women, while indicating that their societal and cultural integration is still not wholly free of problems.Tuula Gordon's incisive application of feminist theory further add to a fascinating and invaluable study of an increasingly significant segment of society.