Abstract

Vivian Liska’s book examines the diverse conflicts and paradoxes of community and identity among twentieth century German-and Austrian-Jewish writers. In a series of readings of paradigmatic texts by Kafka, Paul Celan, Else Lasker-Schüler, Ilse Aichinger and a few others, Liska reveals the tensions and ambivalences of what she calls “uncommon communities,” the unusual affiliations that are generated by literary images and how those images question common assumptions about identity. When Kafka Says We is an important contribution to literary criticism in general and to German-Jewish studies in particular. It throws new light on the dialectics of Germanness and Jewishness, on the dilemmas of inclusion and exclusion, as well as on the relationships of individuals to collectivities.

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