Publisher's Synopsis
Provides an original new direction in the interpretation of canonical works of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German literature. Between 1749 and 1850 the emancipation debates over granting full civil and political rights to Jews provided the topical background against which all representations of Jewish characters and concerns in literary texts were read. Helfer focuses sharply on these debates and demonstrates how disciplinary practices within the field of German studies have led to blind spots in the scholarship on anti-Semitism.
