The Figural Jew: Politics and Identity in Postwar French Thought

310 Pages·2010·1.59 MB·English

by  Sarah Hammerschlag

The Figural Jew
Religion and PostmodeRnism
A Series Edited by Thomas A. Carlson
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The Figural Jew
Politics and Identity in
Postwar French Thought
SARAH HAMMERSCHLAG
The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
publication of this book has been aided
by a grant from the bevington fund.
saRaH HammeRsCHlag is assistant professor of Jewish
thought in the Department of Religion at Williams College.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2010 by Sarah Hammerschlag
All rights reserved. Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-31511-9 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-31512-6 (paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-31511-8 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0-226-31512-6 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hammerschlag, Sarah.
The figural Jew : politics and identity in postwar French thought /
Sarah Hammerschlag.
p. cm. — (Religion and postmodernism).
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-31511-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-31512-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-31511-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-31512-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Philosophy, Jewish—France—20th century. 2. Philosophy,
French—20th century. 3. Jews—Identity. 4. Blanchot, Maurice.
5. Derrida, Jacques. 6. Lévinas, Emmanuel. 7. Sartre, Jean-Paul,
1905–1980. I. Title. II. Series: Religion and postmodernism.
B2421.H25 2010
194—dc22 2009026828
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum require-
ments of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
For Ryan, it is by the radiance of your mind and spirit that I
light my days.
In memory of Gerson Tabor
Men search for themselves in their unconditional foreignness.
EMMANUEL LEVINAS, HUMANISM OF THE OTHER
Denn der Jud, du weißts, was hat er schon, das ihm auch wirklich gehört, das
nicht geborgt wär, ausgeliehen und nicht zurückgegeben. . . .
PAUL CELAN, GESPRÄCH IM GEBIRG
There remains the question of knowing what Judaism as a figure is. . . .
JACQUES DERRIDA, QUESTIONING JUDAISM (INTERVIEW WITH ELISABETH WEBER)
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Roots, Rootlessness, and Fin de Siècle France 25
2 Stranger and Self: Sartre’s Jew 68
I. Anti-Semite and Jew 68
II. Dialectical History, Unhappy Consciousness,
and the Messiah 93
3 The Ethics of Uprootedness: Emmanuel Levinas’s
Postwar Project 117
4 Literary Unrest: Maurice Blanchot’s Rewriting
of Levinas 166
5 “The Last of the Jews”: Jacques Derrida and the
Case of the Figure 201
I. The Cut 206
II. The Exemplar 228
Conclusion 261
Selected Bibliography 269
Index 287

Acknowledgments
Over the course of the seven years it took to write, revise,
rewrite, and edit this book, I have been, at times, a stub-
born and persistent researcher, a frustrated and despondent
writer, and a passionate and overzealous scholar. There
have been a number of people who have not only had to
bear the consequences of these states but also supported
and encouraged me, reminding me that—in the words of
David Tracy quoting Julian of Norwich—“all will be well,
all manner of things will be well.”
At the University of Chicago, my mentor, Françoise
Meltzer, kept my sights set high. She read closely, edited
deftly, and asked all the hardest questions. Paul Mendes-
Flohr inspired the project on a fateful Saturday morning
in Hutch Commons. Arnold Davidson’s strategic savvy
and improvisational skill have turned many an ill-formed
thought of mine into an eloquent argument. The Martin
Marty Center gave me financial support and also provided
indispensable intellectual feedback.
I am indebted as well to the Erasmus Institute at the
University of Notre Dame, to the National Foundation for
Jewish Culture for the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Doc-
toral Dissertation Fellowship in Jewish Studies, and to the
University of Chicago Center in Paris for their support.
Williams College has provided the most hospitable envi-
ronment imaginable for my scholarship and teaching. I am
grateful to both chairs of the Religion Department at Wil-
liams, Bill Darrow and Denise Buell, for their generosity
and encouragement. My colleagues in the Religion Depart-
ment and the Jewish Studies Program were immensely
ix