Language:
German
Year of publication:
1999
Titel der Quelle:
Bruchlinien
Angaben zur Quelle:
(1999) 125-145
Keywords:
Horkheimer, Max,
;
Adorno, Theodor W.,
;
Antisemitism History 20th century
;
Antisemitism Psychological aspects
;
Fascism History 20th century
Abstract:
Discusses "Elements of Anti-Semitism", the penultimate section of "Dialectic of Enlightenment", written in 1943 mainly by Horkheimer and Adorno. The simplistic "psychologism" of their approach to antisemitism reflected their search for an explanation simple enough to be understood by their contemporaries, who were fighting antisemitism and totalitarianism. Influenced by Freud's "Totem and Taboo", the authors believed that the desire to sacrifice the Jews reflected fascism's rejection of the Jewish ban on imagery and fascism's use of images, rituals, and symbols that led to self-deception and destruction. Horkheimer and Adorno saw antisemitism as universal and primitive rather than typical of a specific nation, and did not identify it with Christian anti-Judaism or modern racism. To some extent, they also saw Jews as responsible for their fate. However, they hoped that reason would "outwit myth" and that Jews would be considered as humans rather than as objects for sacrifice. This was their contribution to fighting antisemitism, despite the "multiple sins" of their analysis of the phenomenon they opposed.
Note:
Appeared in English as "'Why were the Jews sacrificed?' The place of antisemitism in Adorno and Horkheimer's 'Dialectic of Enlightenment'," in the "New German Critique" 81 (2000) 49-64, and in "Adorno; a Critical Reader" (2002) 132-149.
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