Description:
The question how to frame the world as asingle, objectivesystem that accommodates both oneness and asymmetry,has been a constant in human thought. In an attempt to avoid Westernteleologies, I propose to start at the opposite end and revisit the invention,in the early 1800s, of the small literary subspecies of Jewish literature. As Ihope to show, the Jews’ struggle to write themselves into the European canon highlightsvarious tensions within cosmopolitan literature that are being debated today: themeeting of unity and multiplicity; the nature of intersectionality; the searchfor cosmopolitan aesthetics; and the (im)possibility of inclusion withoutexclusion.Thispaper traces how the early Wissenschaftdes Judentums tried to advance Jewish emancipation by redefining thetraditional canon both in national and in universal terms. The result was aporous and synergetic Jewish literature croisée that was proud tocontribute to a synthetic ‘Totality of Literature.’ Building on Hegel and anticipatingOrtiz’s 1940s concept of transculturation, Wissenschaft authors relied onwater-imagery (confluence) rather than biological metaphor (métissage)to capture the transformative dialectic of cultures in contact. Presentingliterature as a serial global dialogue with alternating hegemonies, theyformulated a multinational rather than transnational aesthetic that bypassedboth monistic and pluralistic models.