1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910828629503321

Autore

Pedersen Ena

Titolo

Writer on the run : German-Jewish identity and the experience of exile in the life and work of Henry William Katz / / Ena Pedersen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Tübingen : , : Niemeyer, , 2001

ISBN

3-11-096597-6

Edizione

[Reprint 2014]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (204 p.)

Collana

Conditio Judaica, , 0941-5866 ; ; 33

Classificazione

GM 1451

Disciplina

833/.912

B

Soggetti

Jewish authors, Exiled - Germany

German literature - Jewish authors - History and criticism

Jews - Germany - Intellectual life

Judaism and literature - Germany

Jewish journalists

Jews - Germany - Identity

Jews in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter I. Henry William Katz: A Tour Through the Twentieth Century -- Chapter II. Katz's Journalism: Spokesman of the Proletariat -- Chapter III. Die Fischmanns: >Man verfolgt nicht nur die Juden aus Strody< -- Chapter IV. Schloßgasse 21: German or Jew? The Question of Identity -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

This is the first academic treatment of the life and work of the German-Jewish writer, Henry William Katz (1906-1992), who was exiled from Nazi Germany in 1933. From a combined literary, historical, biographical and sociological perspective, Ena Pedersen analyses Katz's depiction of the Eastern European Jews in Galicia, Weimar Germany and in exile, focusing on the problems of anti-Semitism, assimilation, German-Jewish symbiosis, and Jewish identity in the Diaspora. Narratorial technique and structuring principles of his works are examined carefully as is the development of themes and characters from his early journalism through to his later fiction. The book further



contains the first biography of Katz's life, based on interviews with friends and relatives of Katz in Germany, France and the USA, as well as an analysis of his journalistic articles and political engagement with the SPD in the context of the crisis of left-wing journalism towards the end of the Weimar Republic. Through comparisons with contemporary Weimar journalists such as Alfred Polgar and Kurt Tucholsky, as well as Jewish and non-Jewish writers in exile such as Joseph Roth, Martin Beradt, Lion Feuchtwanger and Ernst Glaeser, Katz is placed within the body of Weimar journalism, German exile literature, and Jewish ghetto literature. Through her analysis of his works, Ena Pedersen shows how Katz conforms to the patterns of German-Jewish exile literature yet stands out from his contemporaries through his focus on the Eastern European Jews, describing in a uniquely personal and yet often sarcastic and critical way the particular concerns and dilemmas of this minority within the German-Jewish community at the time.