Discussion

Abstract

HINRICH SEEBA: I would like to take up one point Frank Trommler just made at the very end, namely what I tried to emphasize that the majority of the exiled Germanists or the exiled Jewish critics who have been so influential in the academy here, came from Austria, that this Austrian perspective allowed them to deal with German literature without dealing with Germany. I would see that in a more positive light, not as escaping from social and sociological tendencies, but I would see it more as the biographical basis for their outsiders’ position and for their reflection on the outsiders’ position. That they were twice removed from German affairs and therefore could develop a critical viewpoint on Germany, which people coming directly from Germany may not have as strongly represented. So I would see the Austrian perspective, especially after the war when Austrians were very proud of not being German and insisted a little bit too much in Austria itself that they had become the first victims of Germany, but I would see that as far as Jewish critics are concerned as an asset and not as a liability, as an asset for developing more socially concerned critical viewpoints on developments in postwar Germany. And that is something which I tried to emphasize very much, that the autobiographical approach which Egon Schwarz emphasized in his own memoirs is a very interesting and very important development that Jewish critics taught us. My generation had grown up excluding “I,” the ego, the first person from any scientific statements. To learn to say “I” again — and not only to say “I,” “ich” talking about our own anecdotal evidence of our lives and how much this life has affected the way we look at things — but to go beyond that and see it in a more general and even more theoretical perspective, namely the concept of positionality. I think that the recent emphasis on positionality is historically grounded in the experience of those who had to say “I” because their perspective was so much influenced by what they experienced and what they went through. So, I would say it is very important, as Egon Schwarz pointed out in his response, to emphasize the biographical approach, to look at the biographies of Jewish critics. I think much more needs to be done there. Alewyn is an interesting case in point.