Remembering the Jewish and German Questions

Remembering the Jewish and German Questions: Essays on Fairy Tales, Poetry, and Culture is a selection of Jack Zipes’s insightful essays and presentations on fairy tales, Jewish studies, philosophy, drama, and the German public sphere.

The collection begins by considering how fairy tales have been shaped by societies, and how they have influenced society in turn. Zipes considers the history of the Grimms’ fairy tales and their popularity and spread – comparing them to an epidemic. The second chapter champions the work and significance of the great philosopher Ernst Bloch, with substantial engagement with the essay collection Not Yet: Reconsidering Ernst Bloch (Daniel and Moylan 1997). Chapter 3 probes into the way society makes sense of the world through fairy tales and fantasy. In Chapter 4, Zipes explores the shift and reemergence of Jewish culture in Germany in the 1990s. He turns to the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari to offer insight into the usefulness of a "minor literature" for grasping the impact of Jewish culture as a minor culture in Germany. The next chapter provides a fascinating case study of Hungarian writer and theater director George Tabori’s relationship to the Jewish Question through examination of his plays from 1968 to 1996. Chapter 6 looks to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the unification of Germany in 1990, and questions around Jewish and German relationships in the public sphere. The final chapter offers detailed examination of Theodor Adorno’s essay “Cultural Criticism and Society” (1951) and remembers forgotten poets who wrote remarkable poems in defiance of the barbarism of World War 2.

This interdisciplinary, transnational, and crosscultural collection gathers essays and presentations from Jack Zipes’s captivating oeuvre published or presented across two decades. It provides a celebration of the work of this esteemed and field-defining literary scholar. It is an illuminating book intended for readers interested in fairy tale studies, poetry, drama, and Jewish studies.