Mobile Modernity

Germans, Jews, Trains

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Judaism, Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science
Cover of the book Mobile Modernity by Todd Presner, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Todd Presner ISBN: 9780231511582
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: April 19, 2007
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Todd Presner
ISBN: 9780231511582
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: April 19, 2007
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

Though the history of the German railway system is often associated with the transportation of Jews to labor and death camps, Todd Presner looks instead to the completion of the first German railway lines and their role in remapping the cultural geography and intellectual history of Germany's Jews.

Treating the German railway as both an iconic symbol of modernity and a crucial social, technological, and political force, Presner advances a groundbreaking interpretation of the ways in which mobility is inextricably linked to German and Jewish visions of modernity. Moving beyond the tired model of a failed German-Jewish dialogue, Presner emphasizes the mutual entanglement of the very categories of German and Jewish and the many sites of contact and exchange that occurred between German and Jewish thinkers.

Turning to philosophy, literature, and the history of technology, and drawing on transnational cultural and diaspora studies, Presner charts the influence of increased mobility on interactions between Germans and Jews. He considers such major figures as Kafka, Heidegger, Arendt, Freud, Sebald, Hegel, and Heine, reading poetry next to philosophy, architecture next to literature, and railway maps next to cultural history.

Rather than a conventional, linear history that culminates in the tragedy of the Holocaust, Presner produces a cultural mapping that articulates a much more complex story of the hopes and catastrophes of mobile modernity. By focusing on the spaces of encounter emblematically represented by the overdetermined triangulation of Germans, Jews, and trains, he introduces a new genealogy for the study of European and German-Jewish modernity.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Though the history of the German railway system is often associated with the transportation of Jews to labor and death camps, Todd Presner looks instead to the completion of the first German railway lines and their role in remapping the cultural geography and intellectual history of Germany's Jews.

Treating the German railway as both an iconic symbol of modernity and a crucial social, technological, and political force, Presner advances a groundbreaking interpretation of the ways in which mobility is inextricably linked to German and Jewish visions of modernity. Moving beyond the tired model of a failed German-Jewish dialogue, Presner emphasizes the mutual entanglement of the very categories of German and Jewish and the many sites of contact and exchange that occurred between German and Jewish thinkers.

Turning to philosophy, literature, and the history of technology, and drawing on transnational cultural and diaspora studies, Presner charts the influence of increased mobility on interactions between Germans and Jews. He considers such major figures as Kafka, Heidegger, Arendt, Freud, Sebald, Hegel, and Heine, reading poetry next to philosophy, architecture next to literature, and railway maps next to cultural history.

Rather than a conventional, linear history that culminates in the tragedy of the Holocaust, Presner produces a cultural mapping that articulates a much more complex story of the hopes and catastrophes of mobile modernity. By focusing on the spaces of encounter emblematically represented by the overdetermined triangulation of Germans, Jews, and trains, he introduces a new genealogy for the study of European and German-Jewish modernity.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Metaphysics of the Profane by Todd Presner
Cover of the book There’s No Such Thing as a Sexual Relationship by Todd Presner
Cover of the book Film Dialogue by Todd Presner
Cover of the book Creaturely Poetics by Todd Presner
Cover of the book The Measure of America by Todd Presner
Cover of the book Dying: What Happens When We Die? by Todd Presner
Cover of the book In Their Siblings’ Voices by Todd Presner
Cover of the book Emperor of Japan by Todd Presner
Cover of the book Clio Wired by Todd Presner
Cover of the book Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland by Todd Presner
Cover of the book Reconstructing Strangelove by Todd Presner
Cover of the book The Breaking Jewel by Todd Presner
Cover of the book Opening NATO's Door by Todd Presner
Cover of the book The Cinema of Béla Tarr by Todd Presner
Cover of the book The Practice of Political Theory by Todd Presner
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy