Jews & Gender: Responses to Otto WeiningerNancy Anne Harrowitz, Barbara Hyams In 1903 Otto Weininger, A Viennese Jew who converted to Protestantism, publishedGeschiecht und Charakter(Sex and Character), a book in which he set out to prove the moral inferiority and character deficiency of "the woman" and "the Jew." Almost immediately, he was acclaimed as a young genius for bringing these two elements together. Shortly thereafter, at the age of twenty-three, Weininger committed suicide in the room where Beethoven had died. Weininger's sensationalized death immortalized him as an intellectual who expressed the abject misogyny and antisemitism. This collection of essays, many translated into English for the first time, examines Weininger's influence and reception in Western culture, particularly his impact on important writers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sigmund Freud, Franz Kafka, and James Joyce. One essay considers the ways Weininger's ideas were used to further Nazi ideology, and several offer feminist approaches to interpreting the intersection of antisemitism and misogyny. The concluding essay explores Weininger's surprising role in Israel's ongoing sociopolitical self-definition through the bold production of Joshua Sobol's play, "The Soul of a Jew (Weininger's Last Night)." This volume 's close examination of Weininger's ideas, and their subsequent appearance in other well-known texts, suggests how the legacies of prejudice affect Western culture today. Author note: Nancy A. Harrowitzis author ofAntisemitism, Misogyny and the Logic of Cultural Difference: Cesare Lombroso and Matilde Seraoand editor ofTainted Greatness: Antisemitism and Cultural Heroes(Temple). Barbara Hyamsis Lecturer with the rank of Assistant Professor of German at Brandeis University. |
Contents
THE OTTO WEININGER CASE REVISITED | 21 |
FRAGMENTS FROM WEININGERS EDUCATION 18951902 | 35 |
4 | 61 |
A QUESTION OF INFLUENCE | 73 |
OTTO WEININGER AS LIBERAL? | 91 |
7 | 97 |
IN THE SHAPING OF PSYCHOANALYSIS | 103 |
WEININGER AND AUSTRIAN | 121 |
KAFKA AND WEININGER | 195 |
WEININGER AND THE BLOOM OF JEWISH SELFHATRED | 207 |
JAMES JOYCES WOMANLY WANDERING JEW | 215 |
THE WEININGERIAN DEFINITION | 227 |
SVEVO AND WEININGER LORD MORTONS MARE | 237 |
RECEPTION | 245 |
THE SOUL OF A | 257 |
Notes | 271 |
OTTO WEININGER AND THE CRITIQUE OF JEWISH | 141 |
WEININGER AND NAZI IDEOLOGY | 155 |
OF OTTO WEININGERS SEX AND CHARACTER | 171 |
WEININGER IN A POEM BY APOLLINAIRE | 183 |
| 305 | |
Notes on the Contributors | 331 |
Other editions - View all
Jews & Gender: Responses to Otto Weininger Nancy Anne Harrowitz,Barbara Hyams No preview available - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
anti-Semitism antifeminism Apollinaire appears Aryan Auto-da-Fé become biological bisexuality Bloom body Broch Canetti Centgraf century chapter characterology claim concept contemporary context creative criminal critical culture discussion emancipation essay ethical example experience female feminine Freud gender genius German Geschlecht und Charakter Gilman Gomperz homosexuality Horney human ideas identity ideology individual influence Israeli James Joyce Janik Jewish male Jewish self-hatred Jodl Joyce Joyce's Judaism Kafka Karl Kraus Kien language logic Lombroso masculine means memory misogyny modern Molly Molly's moral mother Musil nature Nazi novel Otto Weininger Otto Weininger's paradigm Parsifal person philosophical play prostitute Psyche psychology published race racial relationship Rider Rodlauer scientific Sex and Character sexual Sigmund Freud Sobol social society soul suicide Svevo Swoboda Theodor Lessing Therese tion translation Ulysses Vienna Viennese völkisch Weininger 1906 Weininger reception Weininger's Weininger's Sex Weininger's theories Weiningerian Wittgenstein woman writing Zionism