The Fiction of the State: The Partitions of Poland and the Beginning of Modern Jewish Literature (Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture)

In a compelling new interpretation, this book locates the origins of modern Jewish literature within the turbulent events which reshaped Europe during the late eighteenth century: the partitions of Poland, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Wars.As Austria, Russia, and Prussia consolidated their rule over the Polish lands and banned most forms of political expression, literature became a central venue for reflecting on the new political order.Ofer Dynes argues that Jewish intellectuals turned to fiction - prose, poetry, and drama - to engage in political debates and make sense of new state structures.Through their writing, Jewish intellectuals positioned themselves as interpreters, mediators, and, at times, collaborators with the new imperial powers. Combining meticulous archival research and nuanced textual readings, Dynes contextualizes modern Jewish literature as rooted in the awareness of major political upheaval.Rather than an internal Jewish struggle between tradition and