Art without Borders: Artist Rahel Szalit-Marcus and Jewish Visual Culture

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2022

Department 1

German

Department 2

Judaic Studies

Abstract

Visual analysis is necessary for examining German-Jewish culture on an extralinguistic level. Whereas literary texts written in the German language are generally categorized as German literature, situating visual culture within a national or language-based framework can be more challenging. Take, for example, an oil painting of a dark-haired woman serving cocktails in a bar. What would make us consider such a painting “German,” “Jewish,” or “German-Jewish”? Images can operate either outside of language or in tandem with it, and images can also address audiences in different ways. If language is not an integral part of an image, other factors must be considered for us to read it as German, among them its creator, title, formal stylistic properties, subject matter, and production and reception history. Other factors affect how we see or recognize Jewishness in still and moving images, including how visual representations predispose viewers to perceive or feel toward Jews. Beyond this, we can also consider the extent to which images have the ability to reflect a specifically German-Jewish self-consciousness. [excerpt]

DOI

10.1515/9781800736788-012

ISBN/ISSN

978-1-80073-677-1

Required Publisher's Statement

The book containing this chapter is available from the publisher's website.

This item is not available in The Cupola.

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