German Images of the Self and the Other: Nationalist, Colonialist and Anti-Semitic Discourse 1871–1918

235 Pages·2012·1.32 MB·English

by  Felicity Rash (auth.)

German Images of the Self and the Other

German Images of the
Self and the Other
Nationalist, Colonialist and Anti- Semitic
Discourse 1871–1918
Felicity Rash
Queen Mary University of London, UK
© Felicity Rash 2012
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-28265-0
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First published 2012 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-32854-3 ISBN 978-1-137-03021-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137030214
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rash, Felicity J., 1954–
German images of the self and the other : nationalist, colonialist and anti-
semitic discourse 1871–1918 / Felicity Rash.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-349-32854-3
1. Discourse analysis—Social aspects—Germany. 2. National characteristics,
German—History—19th century. 3. National characteristics, German—
History—20th century. 4. German literature—Social aspects. 5. Other
(Philosophy) in literature. 6. Group identity—Germany. 7. Racism in
literature. 8. Germany—In mass media. I. Title.
P302.15.G3R37 2012
401’.410943—dc23 2012022275
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
To my partner, Peter Orton, my rock

Contents
Foreword x
1 Methodological Framework 1
1.1 C ritical Discourse Analysis and the
Discourse Historical Approach 1
1.2 Historical Discourse Semantics (HDS) 6
1.3 Critical Metaphor Analysis 10
1.4 Presupposition and metacommunication 14
1.5 C orpus Linguistics and C omputer- Assisted
Discourse Analysis 16
2 Self- identity, Otherness and Nationalism 20
2.1 Identity 20
2.2 Self- identity and other-identity 24
2.3 Myths, folk-t ales and the creation of identity 27
2.4 National identity and nationalism 31
2.5 German nationalism, the Volk and the Other 36
2.5.1 Fichte, Jahn, and the German nation 37
2.5.2 N ationalism after the formation of the
Second Reich 43
3 Racism in Discourse 50
3.1 What is race? 50
3.2 Houston Stewart Chamberlain’s view of race 51
3.3 What is racism? 59
3.4 Racist discourse 61
3.5 A nti- Slavic discourse 62
3.5.1 Heinrich Claß 64
3.5.2 The treatment of Slavs in fiction 68
3.6 Images of gypsies and anti-Ziganism 73
3.7 Final thoughts 79
4 Anti- Semitism in Discourse 81
4.1 What is anti-Semitism? 81
4.2 Discourse about Jews 1871–1879 84
4.2.1 Wilhelm Marr 85
4.2.2 Stoecker, Mommsen and Treitschke 91
vii
viii Contents
4.3 A nti- Semitic discourse 1880–1899 95
4.3.1 Eugen Dühring 95
4.3.2 Böckel and Fritsch 98
4.4 A nti- Semitic discourse 1899–1914 99
4.4.1 Houston Stewart Chamberlain 99
4.4.1.1 Analysis of Chapters 5 and 6 of
the Grundlagen 101
4.4.1.2 DHA analysis of the Grundlagen 110
4.4.1.3 Arische Weltanschauung 115
4.4.2 H einrich Claß’s a nti- Semitism as a
precursor to Chamberlain’s war- time essays 116
4.5 Chamberlain’s war- time anti-Semitism 118
4.6 A nti- Semitism in fictional literature 123
4.7 Final thoughts 129
5 Colonialism in Discourse 130
5.1 What is colonialism? 130
5.2 The Self and the Other in colonialist discourse 132
5.3 The German colonies 1884–1919 134
5.4 Colonial racism 137
5.5 Analysis of colonialist writing 138
5.5.1 Carl Peters 138
5.5.2 Paul Rohrbach’s ‘German Idea’ 142
5.6 I mages of the Self and the Other in
colonial fiction 151
5.7 T he journalistic portrayal of German culture
in the colonies 161
5.8 Final thoughts 167
6 Discourse in War-Time 169
6.1 The ‘Bismarck effect’ 170
6.2 Paul Rohrbach’s Zum Weltvolk hindurch! 174
6.3 Houston Stewart Chamberlain’s Kriegsaufsätze 181
6.3.1 Textual analysis of the Kriegsaufsätze 182
6.4 C omputer-a ssisted analysis of Rohrbach’s and
Chamberlain’s war essays 189
6.4.1 The use of metaphors in the war essays 193
6.5 War poetry 194
6.6 W ar- time films 199
6.7 Final thoughts 201
Contents ix
7 Conclusion 202
Notes to Chapters 205
Bibliography 209