Table Of Content

IN EXILE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BLOOMSBURY Lev Shestov: Philosopher of the Sleepless Night, Matthew Beaumont Contradiction Set Free, Hermann Levin Goldschmidt, trans. John Koster Modernism between Benjamin and Goethe, Matthew Charles Another Finitude: Messianic Vitalism and Philosophy, Agata Bielik-Robson Heine and Critical Theory, Willi Goetschel Hannah Arendt’s Ethics, Deirdre Lauren Mahony IN EXILE GEOGRAPHY, PHILOSOPHY AND JUDAIC THOUGHT JESSICA DUBOW BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2021 Copyright © Jessica Dubow, 2021 Jessica Dubow has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. viii constitute an extension of this copyright page. Cover design by Charlotte Daniels Cover image: Der Verlassene Raum, Berlin. (Photograph © Neville Dubow Archive, Special Collections, UCT Libraries) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: HB: 978-1-3501-5425-4 PB: 978-1-3501-9177-8 ePDF: 978-1-3501-5427-8 eBook: 978-1-3501-5428-5 Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. For Talitha, Beth and Thomas vi CONTENTS Acknowledgements viii Introduction: Exile at the origin 1 1 ‘A patch of ground between four tent pegs’: Franz Rosenzweig and the time of exile 17 2 The Second Commandment in the Second Empire: Or, a small theology in Walter Benjamin’s city 47 3 Liberalism pluralism and the mourning work of assimilation: Isaiah Berlin via Sigmund Freud 73 4 ‘Wherever you go you will be a polis’: Hannah Arendt via Rahel Varnhagen 111 5 Posthumous place: W.G. Sebald and the displacement of landscape 141 Epilogue: Placeholding 165 Notes 174 Bibliography 213 Index 224 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS One of the enjoyments of completing this book is not only releasing this particular albatross from about my neck (it has hung there far too long) but realizing just how many colleagues and friends have been a part of this work and the debt I owe to them. The book cover features a photograph taken by my father, Neville Dubow, an art historian and photographer. It is of Karl Biedermann’s ‘The Deserted Room’ (Der verlassene Raum): a cast-bronze table, two chairs – one toppled – and a platform of parquet flooring situated in the corner of a small, quiet neighbourhood park in Koppenplatz, Berlin- Mitte. A drama has happened here, one repeated thousands of times: a bang on the door, a hurried departure, an unoccupied place, an occupant without a place. Seeing it for the first time, I knew I wanted to write a book that shared something of its spirit and scale: somewhat larger than life size, but not by much; constellating an array of abstractions while keeping a close link to actual sites and scenes. I am very grateful to the Leverhulme Trust which supported much of this work as well as to the Frankel Institute at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, which in the fall of 2015–16 granted me a fellowship in all senses of the word. The conversations and inspirations I found there were hugely important – especially with Scott Spector, Jeff Veidlinger, Guy Stroumsa, Michael Löwy, Marc Caplan, Efrat Bloom and Geneviève Zubrzycki. I owe a special debt to Geoff Eley. The generosity and rigour of his reading, his unwavering counsel and belief in this project have been extraordinary. If I have failed to ‘historicize! historicize! historicize!’ this is not due to a shortage of reminders. I also thank my colleagues in the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield – in particular Peter Jackson, Eric Olund, Richard Phillips, Jenny ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix Pickerill, John Flint, David Robinson. In all sorts of ways and on most days, the practical help and less than practical humour of Thomas Sullivan and Rowan Jaines cleared the fog, dissolved the worry and kept me buoyant. Phoebe and Astrid played their inimitable parts, too. I appreciate the probing criticism and encouragement from the anonymous reviewers of the manuscript. My profound thanks to Lisa Goodrum and Lucy Russell at Bloomsbury for their smooth shepherding of this book to its eventual destination. My treasured friends in South Africa, England and Canada and my family in Brighton, Cape Town, Cambridge, Maastricht and Williamstown continue to show me that the ties that truly bind are seldom geographical or that geography is precisely what happens between places.