Emotions and the History of Modern Anti-Semitism

Emotions and the History of Modern Anti-Semitism

Veranstalter
Uffa Jensen, Research Center “History of Emotions” at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development; Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, Center for Research on Anti-Semitism in Berlin; Raphael Gross and Daniel Wildmann, Leo Baeck Institute in London
Veranstaltungsort
Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Großer Sitzungssaal, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin
Ort
Berlin
Land
Deutschland
Vom - Bis
16.04.2012 - 18.04.2012
Deadline
10.04.2012
Von
Jensen, Uffa

In his famous book, Anti-Semite and Jew (1946), the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) described anti-Semitism as “something quite other than an idea”: it was a “passion”. Only very few historians have taken up Sartre’s description and systematically investigated the connections between the history of emotions and the history of anti-Semitism. Historians of emotions, on the one hand, have studied the history of specific adverse feelings, such as hatred, resentment or disgust, but have isolated them from other emotions as well as from specific social contexts. In this regard, the history of emotions would benefit greatly from the analysis of a highly complex and historically enduring case like anti-Semitism. On the other hand, historians of anti-Semitism often rely on the implicit assumption that their task is to examine the ideological and cognitive elements in anti-Semitism, that is, the prejudices against Jews. Apart from producing somewhat flat histories of anti-Semitism, such a treatment reproduces the view that emotions have no history and, as essentialized bodily phenomena, only accompany the “real” history of cognitive notions against Jews. However, since the inseparability of emotion and cognition is by now widely accepted in the interdisciplinary study of emotions, the cognitive bias in this historiography no longer makes sense.

Against this background, this conference seeks to understand anti-Semitism as an emotionally laden phenomenon primarily in modern European history. It will explore anti-Semitic forms of communication (i.e. in texts, speeches, slogans, films, images etc.) which rely on various emotions like hatred, anger, fear, disgust, resentment, envy, pride and so on. Another dimension will be the cohesive value of anti-Semitism for processes of group formation, which rests upon shared emotionality among its members. In cases of anti-Semitic violence, emotions also play a major role: particularly in pogroms, an emotional orchestration and escalation of mass violence takes place. Furthermore, anti-Semitism frequently includes the condemnation of (allegedly Jewish) behavior as immoral. Thus, anti-Semites often employ moral emotions like indignation or resentment. Finally, Jewish reactions to anti-Semitism display a variety of emotions as well: among them moral ones, but also fear, anger, pride and so on. The conference will include discussions about all these phenomena by exploring the modern history of anti-Semitism in a variety of European countries.

The conference will take place at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development on April 16-18th 2012. The main conference language will be English. A limited number of visitors are welcome to take part in the conference upon prior request – please contact Karola Rockmann at rockmann@mpib-berlin.mpg.de by April 10th 2012.

Programm

Monday, April 16th 2012

14:00 Registration

15:00 Welcome

Ute Frevert (Berlin)
Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (Berlin)
Raphael Gross (Frankfurt a. M./London)
Daniel Wildmann (London)

15:30 Introduction

Uffa Jensen (Berlin): The History of Emotions: A New Perspective on Modern Anti-Semitism?

16:15 Break

16:30 Panel 1: Writing Emotions into the History of Anti-Semitism

Jonathan Judaken (Memphis): Anxiety and Modernity: Talcott Parsons, Sartre, and the Frankfurt School on Modern Anti-Semitism

Julijana Ranc (Hamburg): Anti-Jewish Resentment and Awareness of Injustice

Comment: Detlev Claussen (Hannover)

Chair: Ute Frevert (Berlin)

18:30 Reception

Tuesday, April 17th 2012

9:00 Panel 2: Emotions and Anti-Semitic Violence

Russell Spinney (Santa Fe): Expanding the Emotional Economy of Anti-Semitism in the Weimar Republic

Stefan Wiese (Berlin): Hatred, Fear, and Joy—The Emotional Dimension of Pogrom Violence in the Late Imperial Russia

Comment: Christhard Hoffmann (Bergen)

Chair: Pascal Eitler (Berlin)

11:00 Break

11:15 Panel 3: Anti-Semitism—Rational or Irrational?

Werner Bergmann (Berlin): The Negation of Emotions in Modern Anti-Semitism

Anthony D. Kauders (Keele/Munich): Good Feelings, Bad Rationality: The Problem with Jewish Reason

Comment: Robert S. Wistrich (Jerusalem)

Chair: Benno Gammerl (Berlin)

13:15 Lunch Break

14:15 Panel 4: Emotions, Anti-Semitism and Media

Nathan D. Abrams (Bangor): Reverse Stereotypes: Anti-Anti Semitic Counter Communication in Contemporary Cinema

Daniel Wildmann (London): German TV Crime Series and German Emotions—Jews in „Tatort“

Remco Ensel (Nijmegen): Singing about Muhamad Al-Durra and the Articulation of an Emotional Conflict

Comment: Darcy C. Buerkle (Northampton/Berlin)

Chair: Raphael Gross (Frankfurt a. M./London)

17:00 Break

17:15 Panel 5: Anti-Semitism and Emotions Across Europe

Ulrich Wyrwa (Berlin) & Tim Buchen, Maciej Moszynski, Klaus Richter, Miloslav Szabó and Marija Vulesica (all Berlin): Anti Semitic Emotions in European Empires. Similarities and Differences of Anti-Semitic Feelings in Various Czarist and Habsburg Regions

Comment: Andrea Hopp (Berlin)

Chair: Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (Berlin)

19:30 Dinner (only active participants)

Wednesday, April 18th 2012

9:00 Panel 6: Emotions, Anti-Semitism and National Socialism

Alexandra Przyrembel (Berlin): Mixed Feelings. „Race Defilement“ and Anti-Semitic Violence, 1933-1938

Werner Konitzer (Frankfurt a. M.): Anger, Hatred, Revulsion—Thoughts about the Emotional Structure of Nazi Anti-Semitism

Comment: Michael Wildt (Berlin)

Chair: Jan Plamper (Berlin)

11:00 Break

11:15 Panel 7: Emotions and Postwar Anti-Semitism

Anna Parkinson (Chicago): „Death of the Adversary“. Emotions and the Affective Structure of Anti-Semitism in Postwar Psychoanalysis and Literature

Katharina Obens (Berlin): Emotional Ambivalence and Conflicting Images of the Jews—Young Germans‘ Impressions and Perceptions after Meeting a Survivor of the Holocaust

Comment: Susan Neiman (Potsdam/Berlin)

Chair: Anja Laukötter (Berlin)

13:15 Lunch Break

14:30 Final Discussion

Chair: Uffa Jensen (Berlin)

Kontakt

Karola Rockmann
Max Planck Institute for Human Development Berlin
Center for the History of Emotions
Lentzeallee 94, D-14195 Berlin
Tel.: +49-(0)30-82406-379
E-Mail: rockmann@mpib-berlin.mpg.de

http://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/en/research/history-of-emotions
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