Die Sprache jüdischer Figuren in der deutschen Literatur (1750-1939): Studien zu Form und Funktion (review)

BookReviews 119 to solve the mystery ofKlein's premature silence as a consequence ofhisfailed attempt to juggle two contradictory loyalties-Yiddishkeit and existential modernity-the work somehow diminishes Klein's stature. Klein may have quit because ofhis sense offailure to accomplish his perhaps impossible aim, but his best work satisfies precisely when it expresses the tragic incoherencies ofmodem Jewish experience. Adam Fuerstenberg Department ofEnglish Ryerson Polytechnic University Die Sprachejiidischer Figuren in der deutschen Literatur (1750-1939): Studien zu Fonn und Funktion, by Matthias Richter. Gottingen: Wallstein Verlag, 1995. 351 pp. This study by a young Gennan scholar deals with what at first glance seems an esoteric subject-the speech of Jewish·characters in works of German literature. Yet this subject has broader implications both for the linguistic history of German Jews and for the study ofrelations between Germans and Jews. The underlying question that Richter strives to analyze is the degree to which Jewish characters in German-language novels and plays are portrayed as speaking in a recognizably Jewish way and the various purposes for which authors use the distinctiveness or nondistinctiveness of Jewish dialogue to comment on the position ofJews. The volume is divided into three main parts of unequal length. The first section, entitled "Presence and Prestige of Yiddish in Germany," deals with the various stages of transition from Yiddish to German as the language of German Jewry as well as the generally negative views about Yiddish common in Germany. The short second section, "Methodological Principles," introduces the idea of"LiteratUljiddisch," here defined as the way Jewish speech is portrayed in German literature, whether as an authentic reflection of the way Jews spoke or as an inauthentic stereotype. The final section, which makes up almost two-thirds ofthe book, is an in-depth study of the treatment of Jewish speech in eight literary works. These works range from the crudest of antisemitic ridicule, through sentimentalized or critical "ghetto tales" by Jewish authors, to depictions of modem Jewish-Gentile relations and the inner problems of a family under the impact of modernization. In order to undertake this study, the author needed to study a range of subjects and disciplines including literary analysis, sociolinguistics, Yiddish, and German-Jewish relations. In general the volume shows a remarkably solid basic understanding of these disparate fields, though there are unavoidably a few lapses. Most annoying ofthese are the terrible misprints ofthe Hebrew characters on pp. 225-226 which make it impossible to read the Hebrew words without retranslating from the German explanations. The long 120 SHOFAR Spring 1997 Vol. 15, No.3 excursus on the authenticity of"Perzent" as a Jewish version of"Prozent" (pp. 115-122) seems far too long. It also seems to me that forms like "kain" for "kein" may not represent any sound difference at all (as Richter claims) but merely a way to show the protagonist is uneducated. (This is similar to forms like "wuz" and "iz" in English.) Generally the limitations ofthis work are ofthis minor kind rather than fundamental. It is unfortunate that the book ends abruptly with the last literary work analyzed and without an overall conclusion. It would,seem from Richter's book that variations ofvocabulary (the use ofHebrew words) are .the only characteristic which is not inherently derogatory and is therefore frequently used by JeWish writers. Variations in pronunciation and especially variations in German word order have a clearly derogatory connotation, and authors who do not want to attack the Jews generally avoid or understate them. All in all this study shows how easily even relatively slight "Jewish" deviations from German syntax and grammar could be used to emphasize the Jews' foreignness. The use of language to stereotype Jewish characters in German literature has an evident parallel in American literature-the way Black speech is presented. In both the German and American cases, minority ethnic variations in language are used as a mark of inferiority and exclusion and are not given the type of affectionate treatment reserved for "majority" dialects. This book presents an interesting and rarely studied aspect ofthe relationship of the majority in German-speaking Europe to the Jewish minority. It is solid and well balanced and provides food for thought...