Experiments in cultural connectivity

early Twentieth-century German-Jewish thought meets the Daodejing

Peter Fenves

pp. 239-251

in: Weigui Fang (ed), Tensions in world literature, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

Taking its point of departure from a curious remark of Franz Kafka concerning the comparability of the Great Wall of China and the Tower of Babel, Peter Fenves' chapter investigates a series of often-overlooked passages in the work of such exemplary German-Jewish writers as Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Walter Benjamin, and Gershom Scholem, in addition to Kafka. The general aim of the chapter consists in sketching a schema of cultural connectivity in which the concept of connection is neither subsumed under the category of cause nor dependent on evidence of reciprocity. The author seeks to show a range of experiments in cultural connectivity, whereby certain Jewish messianic traditions are reflected through the text of the Daodejing and the figure of Laozi.

Cited authors

Buber Martin

Kafka Franz

Benjamin Walter

Rosenzweig Franz

Fenves Peter