Orientalische Poesie als schönes Ganzes?
-
Kathrin Wittler
Abstract
In the 1780s and 1790s, German Jewish translators of the Bible reflected upon their work in aesthetic terms and tried to accommodate it to current literary standards. This proved to be challenging, because these literary standards were at this time hotly debated ‒ with far-reaching consequences for so-called oriental poetry. While the Psalms and other poetic parts of the Hebrew Bible had been valued as an early, oriental model for the lyrical genre of the ode, they hardly conformed to the ideal of the “beautiful whole” as it now came to be emphasized in the framework of classicism and “Autonomieästhetik”. The article demonstrates how Moses Mendelssohn, Joel Löwe, Aaron Wolfssohn, and David Friedländer tried to bridge the increasingly deep abyss between orientalism and classicism and shows how they developed their translation objectives in discussion with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, and Karl Philipp Moritz. Their reflections on how to translate the poetry of the Bible into the linguistic and aesthetic horizons of their time had strong political implications, as they provided a way to negotiate the role of Jews in the emancipation debates.
Abstract
In the 1780s and 1790s, German Jewish translators of the Bible reflected upon their work in aesthetic terms and tried to accommodate it to current literary standards. This proved to be challenging, because these literary standards were at this time hotly debated ‒ with far-reaching consequences for so-called oriental poetry. While the Psalms and other poetic parts of the Hebrew Bible had been valued as an early, oriental model for the lyrical genre of the ode, they hardly conformed to the ideal of the “beautiful whole” as it now came to be emphasized in the framework of classicism and “Autonomieästhetik”. The article demonstrates how Moses Mendelssohn, Joel Löwe, Aaron Wolfssohn, and David Friedländer tried to bridge the increasingly deep abyss between orientalism and classicism and shows how they developed their translation objectives in discussion with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, and Karl Philipp Moritz. Their reflections on how to translate the poetry of the Bible into the linguistic and aesthetic horizons of their time had strong political implications, as they provided a way to negotiate the role of Jews in the emancipation debates.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Inhalt VII
- Einleitung 1
-
Dialog und Emanzipation
- Orientalische Poesie als schönes Ganzes? 11
- Hermeneutik des Konkreten 25
- Re-Forming Professions 41
- Scripture and Separatism 57
-
Bildung und Erziehung
- Wissensspeicher, Lehrbuch, Erkenntnisquelle 77
- Ordnungen religiösen Wissens 93
- Kinderbibeln als Mittel jüdischer Bibelauslegung 113
-
Hermeneutik und Wissenschaft
- „Die niedere Kritik“ 139
- Samuel David Luzzatto and Abraham Geiger on the Textual Criticism of the Bible: Continuity or Conflict? 161
- Die Anfänge moderner Bibelwissenschaft in der Wiener Haskala 171
-
Kommentare und Übersetzungen
- Bibelübersetzung und Kommentarwerk des liberalen Rabbiners Ludwig Philippson 197
- Zur Werkbiografie Benno Jacobs aus der Zeit vor seinen großen Kommentaren 215
- Der Ewige 233
- Herxheimers Bibelwerk 247
-
Anhang
- Literaturverzeichnis 273
- Über die Autorinnen und Autoren 297
- Abbildungsverzeichnis 301
- Personenregister 303
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Inhalt VII
- Einleitung 1
-
Dialog und Emanzipation
- Orientalische Poesie als schönes Ganzes? 11
- Hermeneutik des Konkreten 25
- Re-Forming Professions 41
- Scripture and Separatism 57
-
Bildung und Erziehung
- Wissensspeicher, Lehrbuch, Erkenntnisquelle 77
- Ordnungen religiösen Wissens 93
- Kinderbibeln als Mittel jüdischer Bibelauslegung 113
-
Hermeneutik und Wissenschaft
- „Die niedere Kritik“ 139
- Samuel David Luzzatto and Abraham Geiger on the Textual Criticism of the Bible: Continuity or Conflict? 161
- Die Anfänge moderner Bibelwissenschaft in der Wiener Haskala 171
-
Kommentare und Übersetzungen
- Bibelübersetzung und Kommentarwerk des liberalen Rabbiners Ludwig Philippson 197
- Zur Werkbiografie Benno Jacobs aus der Zeit vor seinen großen Kommentaren 215
- Der Ewige 233
- Herxheimers Bibelwerk 247
-
Anhang
- Literaturverzeichnis 273
- Über die Autorinnen und Autoren 297
- Abbildungsverzeichnis 301
- Personenregister 303
