Language:
German
Year of publication:
1989
Titel der Quelle:
MLN - Modern Language Notes
Angaben zur Quelle:
104,5 (1989) 1142-1171
Keywords:
Zingler, Peter.
;
Daumann, R.H.
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jewish literature History and criticism
;
Antisemitism in literature
;
German literature History and criticism
Abstract:
Examines the themes of race and disease in German culture as expressed in the novels "Patrouille gegen den Tod" by Rudolf Heinrich Daumann (1939) and "Die Seuche" by Peter Zingler (1989). Contends that one must view the themes of Daumann's novel against the background of German science which identified the Jew with syphilis. Two models existed: Hitler viewed the Jews as carriers of sexual diseases who transmitted them to the rest of the world; but it was also argued that Jews had a lower rate of syphilitic infection because of their immunity after centuries of exposure. The view of the "diseased Jews" stemmed from the need to distinguish them at a time when most Jews showed no external signs of difference. By the 1930s, terms of disease and plague and their inherent association with the Jews had entered the cultural vocabulary of Germany. Zingler's novel, a science fiction account of AIDS in Germany in 1999, includes many associations from the Nazi period, e.g. the establishment of "gay" ghettos and of concentration camps for AIDS victims.
Note:
With special emphasis on the novels by R.H. Daumann, "Patrouille gegen den Tod" (1939), and Peter Zingler, "Die Seuche" (1989).
,
Appeared in German as "Seuche in Deutschland 1939/1989; kulturelle Vorstellungen von Rasse, Raum und Krankheit" in his "Rasse, Sexualität und Seuche" (1992) 281-305.
URL:
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