Queer Ahasver? The "Wandering Jew" in Early German Queer Magazine Culture (1896-1933).

This paper examines the ways in which the figure of Ahasver, the so-called "Wandering Jew," was utilized by the early German queer magazine culture (1896-1933), with particular attention to literary texts that explore homosocial and homosexual desire between men. Ahasver is an ambivalent figure, wit...

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Publicado en:Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 70 - 95
Autor principal: Hellmann, Liesa
Formato: Literary Criticism
Publicado: Purdue University Press 2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Queer Ahasver? The "Wandering Jew" in Early German Queer Magazine Culture (1896-1933).
      aug:
        au: Hellmann, Liesa
      su:
        Homosexuality
        Literary magazines
        Kinship
        LGBTQ+ culture
        Weimar Republic, 1918-1933
      sug:
        subj:
          Homosexuality
          Literary magazines
          Kinship
          LGBTQ+ culture
          Weimar Republic, 1918-1933
      keyword:
        Ahasver the "Wandering Jew"
        Ahasver the "Wandering Jew,"
        male homosocial and homosexual desire
        queer belonging
        queer kinship theory
        queer magazine culture
        queer theory
      ab: This paper examines the ways in which the figure of Ahasver, the so-called "Wandering Jew," was utilized by the early German queer magazine culture (1896-1933), with particular attention to literary texts that explore homosocial and homosexual desire between men. Ahasver is an ambivalent figure, with cultural connotations shaped and reshaped over centuries. Coined a "thoroughly un-Jewish figure" by Hans Mayer, he has been employed as an antisemitic projection figure and a personification of the Jewish people, as well as a symbol for resilience, rebellion, or particularity. Against the backdrop of the key topics in the queer magazines' literary texts--conceptualizing nonheteronormative sexuality, affirming male homosocial and homosexual desire, imagining communities and gay genealogies--the figure of Ahasver is employed in a variety of ways that draw from but cannot be subsumed under any of the aforementioned configurations. While he is an overdetermined figure, Ahasver is defined by three main characteristics: immortality, boundless mobility, and solitude. Drawing on queer kinship theory and analyzing three literary texts from one of the leading queer magazines of the Weimar Republic, this article examines Ahasver as a figuration of kinship rupture and social isolation and traces how the figure challenges the imagined union of community, nationality, and statehood.
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    language: English
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