Jews and the Ends of Theory

2018-12-04 Religion

Author : Shai Ginsburg
Release : 2018-12-04
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 015/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Jews and the Ends of Theory by : Shai Ginsburg

Download or read book Jews and the Ends of Theory written by Shai Ginsburg. This book was released on 2018-12-04. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theory, as it’s happened across the humanities, has often been coded as “Jewish.” This collection of essays seeks to move past explanations for this understanding that rely on the self-evident (the historical centrality of Jews to the rise of Critical Theory with the Frankfurt School) or stereotypical (psychoanalysis as the “Jewish Science”) in order to show how certain problematics of modern Jewishness enrich theory. In the range of violence and agency that attend the appellation “Jew,” depending on how, where, and by whom it’s uttered, we can see that Jewishness is a rhetorical as much as a sociological fact, and that its rhetorical and sociological aspects, while linked, are not identical. Attention to this disjuncture helps to elucidate the questions of power, subjectivity, identity, figuration, language, and relation that modern theory has grappled with. These questions in turn implicate geopolitical issues such as the relation of a people to a state and the violence done in the name of simplistic identitarian ideologies. Clarifying a situation where “the Jew” is not readily or unproblematically legible, the editors propose what they call “spectral reading,” a way to understand Jewishness as a fluid and rhetorical presence. While not divorced from sociological facts, this spectral reading works in concert with contemporary theory to mediate pessimistic and utopian impulses, experiences, and realities. Contributors: Svetlana Boym, Andrew Bush, Sergey Dolgopolski, Jay Geller, Sarah Hammerschlag, Hannan Hever, Martin Land, Martin Jay, James I. Porter, Yehouda Shenhav, Elliot R. Wolfson

Jews and the Ends of Theory

2019 HISTORY

Author : Shai Ginsburg
Release : 2019
Genre : HISTORY
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 795/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Jews and the Ends of Theory by : Shai Ginsburg

Download or read book Jews and the Ends of Theory written by Shai Ginsburg. This book was released on 2019. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume assesses the role of Jews, as both agents and figures, in the development of critical and literary theory in the twentieth century and beyond. Its topics range from biblical criticism to the relationship between Derrida and Levinas, from Mizrachi Jews in Israel to the Zionisms of Buber and Scholem"--

Is Theory Good for the Jews?

2016-12-16 Literary Criticism

Author : Bruno Chaouat
Release : 2016-12-16
Genre : Literary Criticism
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 216/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Is Theory Good for the Jews? by : Bruno Chaouat

Download or read book Is Theory Good for the Jews? written by Bruno Chaouat. This book was released on 2016-12-16. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For at least fifteen years, any keen observer of European society has been aware that antisemitism is no longer a matter of racial theory, nationalism, or exclusion of the 'other.' While in the past antisemites saw Jews as all too modern 'rootless cosmopolitans' (to use Stalin's expression), today's European antisemitism construes them as obsolete precisely because they are attached to their roots, their land, their community, their origin. The Jews are now perceived as a reactionary force that hinders the progress of humankind toward multiculturalism, understood as the peaceful, infinitely enriching coexistence of ethnicities, races, religions, and cultures within the same territory. The antisemite of yore viewed the Jews as an inferior race; today he views them as racist. By looking back to the emergence of a postwar theoretical discourse on trauma, memory, victims, suffering, the Holocaust and the Jews, Is Theory Good for the Jews? explores how 'French thought' is implicated in intellectual, literary and ideological components of the global and local upsurge of antisemitism. The author probes the legacy of Heidegger in France and exposes the shortcomings of radical social critique and postcolonial theory confronted to the challenge of Islamic terrorism and Jew hatred. This book is the first effort to analyze French responses that have regrettably played their part in generating the new antisemitism.

Jews and Power

2008-12-24 Religion

Author : Ruth R. Wisse
Release : 2008-12-24
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 131/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Jews and Power by : Ruth R. Wisse

Download or read book Jews and Power written by Ruth R. Wisse. This book was released on 2008-12-24. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the Jewish Encounter series Taking in everything from the Kingdom of David to the Oslo Accords, Ruth Wisse offers a radical new way to think about the Jewish relationship to power. Traditional Jews believed that upholding the covenant with God constituted a treaty with the most powerful force in the universe; this later transformed itself into a belief that, unburdened by a military, Jews could pursue their religious mission on a purely moral plain. Wisse, an eminent professor of comparative literature at Harvard, demonstrates how Jewish political weakness both increased Jewish vulnerability to scapegoating and violence, and unwittingly goaded power-seeking nations to cast Jews as perpetual targets. Although she sees hope in the State of Israel, Wisse questions the way the strategies of the Diaspora continue to drive the Jewish state, echoing Abba Eban's observation that Israel was the only nation to win a war and then sue for peace. And then she draws a persuasive parallel to the United States today, as it struggles to figure out how a liberal democracy can face off against enemies who view Western morality as weakness. This deeply provocative book is sure to stir debate both inside and outside the Jewish world. Wisse's narrative offers a compelling argument that is rich with history and bristling with contemporary urgency.

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