Jewish-German Identity in the Orientalist Literature of Else Lasker-Schuler, Friedrich Wolf, and Franz Werfel

This pioneering volume is the first to examine the phenomenon of Jewish-German orientalist literature. For many Jewish-German authors of the twentieth-century, the Orient represented an imaginative space where they could analyse their position as Jews in German society, and come to terms with a divided identity. Here, representations of Muslims and Islamicate cultures in the works of popular and respected authors who were nevertheless often seen as Jewish,Oriental ‘others’ by the German-speaking societies in which they lived are explored. Lasker-Schuler’s Die Nachte Tino von Bagdads (1907) and Der Prinz von Theben (1912) create a timeless Orient filled with visionaryartists like herself, while Wolf’s Mohammed: Ein Oratorium (1922) depicts the Orient as the birthplace of the message of justice espoused by Islam: through it Wolf reaches a new understanding of his position as a progressive Jew in a war-torn German society. In Werfel’s Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh (1933), the author uses the conflict between Turks and Armenians to explore his own religiosity.