Language:
French
Year of publication:
1988
Titel der Quelle:
Revue de Littérature Comparée
Angaben zur Quelle:
62,1 (1988) 5-22
Keywords:
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim,
;
Jewish literature History and criticism
;
Jews History 1500-1800
;
Jews Emancipation
Abstract:
Points to the influence of Lessing's comedy "Die Juden" on the struggle against antisemitic prejudice in pre-revolutionary France, especially in Alsace. Lessing attacked antisemitic stereotypes by depicting the villains as antisemitic Christians, while the noble character is a Jew. The play resulted in a controversy between Lessing, his friend Moses Mendelssohn, and the theologian Johann David Michaelis who argued that anti-Jewish hostility was caused by the Jews themselves. The 1772 French translation, with its echoes of this controversy, drew favorable reactions by French intellectuals at a time when Bishop Antoine Guénée, and Elie Fréron of the journal "L'Année Littéraire", publicly opposed Voltaire's anti-Jewish writings. A second translation appeared in 1781 after a financial scandal brought Alsatian Jews to public attention. They appealed to Mendelssohn, Dohm, and other German intellectuals for help.
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