THREATS TO MODERNITY, THREATS OF MODERNITY

ABSTRACT

This paper illustrates how the study of literature can inform sociological research on racism and antisemitism by sharpening our perception of the commonalities and differences between the respective stereotypes and of their functions for the construction of collective self-identities. Drawing on the case study of Gustav Freytag's best-selling novel Soll und Haben (Debit and Credit, 1855), the paper argues that antisemitism and racism frequently represent complementary reactions to the experience of capitalist modernisation.

Keywords:

• antisemitism
• racism
• Islamophobia
• literature
• capitalism
• modernity

Notes

¹See also the article by Cousin and Fine in this issue.

²See, e.g., Dalrymple (2004); Malik (2007); Guarnieri (2010); Meer and Noorani (2008); Bunzl (2005, 2007); Benz (2009); Luban (2010).

³See, e.g., Gilman (2005); Malik (2007); Guarnieri (2010); Meer and Noorani (2008); Ahmed (2004); Firestone (2010); Silverstein (2008); Benz (2009).

⁴I prefer this term to that of ‘Islamophobia’, as it avoids conflation of the critique of religious fundamentalism with anti-immigrant or Orientalist racism. See also Halliday (1999: 898f.); Al-Azmeh (2009: xii, 1–10); Fourest and Venner (2003); Malik (2008). I use the term ‘racism’ in a broad sense here to include cultural racism (see also Balibar 2005; Guillaumin 1995: 90–4).

⁵It should go without saying that the observation that these two forms of stereotyping operate with different images and work in different ways has no bearing on the fact that either deserves our criticism wherever it occurs, and that the victims of each should be able to lay claim to our solidarity. To shy away from noting differences for fear of establishing hierarchy between different forms of hatred and exclusion, though, does not further the anti-racist cause, but damages our ability to understand and confront either of them.

⁶For a thoughtful and incisive critique of Bunzl's approach see Fine (2009).

⁷Cf. Said (1978); Firestone (2010); Al-Azmeh (2009: 174–95).

⁸Bunzl (2005: 504).

⁹Adorno (1971: 10).

¹⁰See e.g., Zick et al. (2011); EUMC (2003); Anti-Defamation League (2009); Porat and Stauber (2009). For examples of nationally specific data see Heitmeyer (2010); Zick and Küpper (2005); Community Security Trust (2010, 2011); Country Reports of the Stephen Roth Institute, Tel Aviv University (http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/CR.htm).

¹¹Cf. Haury (2002); Postone (2006); Hirsh (2007) and various articles in Rabinovici et al. (2004); Brosch et al. (2007); and Loewy (2006).

¹²See also Haury (2002: 25–9); Erb and Bergmann (1989: 11); Berding (1996: 193f., 198); Nipperdey and Rürup (1987: 122–25); Pulzer (1988: 47); Volkov (2000: 60f.); Hortzitz (1988: 236ff., 262–73).

¹³In his more explicitly political writings, Freytag even advocated Jewish emancipation. On the apparent tensions between Freytag's political journalism and his novel see Achinger (2007: 337, 342). On the phenomenon of liberal antisemitism more generally see also Herzog (1996); Stoetzler (2008); Katz (1990: 148–52); Rürup (1975); Achinger (2011).

¹⁴On the centrality of this idea for conceptions of German national identity see also Campbell (1989); Schatz and Woeldike (2001).

¹⁵On the interrelation between constructions of class and race see also Balibar (1991).

¹⁶On this constellation see Holz (2001).

¹⁷For an extensive analysis of the implications of this category see Postone (1993).

¹⁸The opposition between the Jewish and the German world thus enacts the one between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft theorised by Ferdinand Tönnies (1991 [1891]) more than three decades later.

¹⁹For a productive attempt to link these characteristics of modern antisemitism to the commodity form see Postone (1980).

²⁰The relationship between literary form and historical content is further discussed in Achinger (2007: 291–344, 2011: 382–388).

²¹For references see footnote 12.

²²For references see footnote 10.

²³The commonalities should not be underestimated, though. Silverstein (2008: 7) notes that French colonial discourse maintained the ‘incompatibility of Islamic civilization with French (Christian-secular) modernity’ as well as the ‘inveterate laziness’ of the Arabs.

²⁴This point is also made by Werbner (2005: 8); cf. also Goldberg (2006: 346). While it is important to note that these ascriptions can function as key components of a generalising anti-Muslim racism, it is equally important to emphasise that the rise of Islamism represents a real threat to human rights in many countries and migrant communities. The work of writers and activists like Gita Saghal or Pragna Patel demonstrates the possibility, but also the difficulties and complexities of an analysis and politics that forego the easy comfort of simplistic and manichean views, and oppose both anti-Muslim racism and the oppression of women and gay people justified with reference to the Qur'an.