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Applies the perspectives of gender and ethnicity in a feminist analysis of the Eichmann controversy and offers a wholly new interpretation of Arendt's work, from Eichmann in Jerusalem to The Life of the Mind.
In this book, Jennifer Ring offers a wholly new interpretation of Hannah Arendt's work, from Eichmann in Jerusalem, with its bitter reception by the Jewish community, to The Life of the Mind. Departing from previous scholarship, Ring applies the perspectives of gender and ethnicity to investigate the extent to which Arendt's identity as a Jewish woman influenced both her thought and its reception.
Ring's analysis of Zionist and assimilationist responses to century-old antisemitic sexual stereotypes leads her to argue that Arendt's criticism of European Jewish leadership during the Holocaust was bound to be explosive. New York and Israeli Jews shared a rare moment of unity in their condemnation of Arendt, charging that she had betrayed the Jewish community-the kind of charge, Ring contends, often leveled against women who dare to speak out publicly against prominent men in their own cultural or racial groups.
The book moves from a feminist analysis of the Eichmann controversy to a discussion of Jewish themes in the structure and content of Arendt's major theoretical works. Ring makes a powerful contribution to an understanding of Arendt, and of multiculturalism, demonstrating that Arendt's most sustained philosophical work was influenced as much by her Jewish heritage as by her German education.
"There is now a fast-growing library of Arendt commentaries, expositions, critiques, and quarrels, but Jennifer Ring's book is something else; an engagement. She thinks along with her subject—both giving and growing in the exciting process." — Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Haverford College, author of Hannah Arendt: For the Love of the World
"A hard-hitting, learned, and original analysis of a problem that has been largely neglected in Arendt scholarship. Some readers will love it and others will hate it, but it is a major contribution that no one interested in Arendt's career will be able to ignore. It provides a valuable corrective to the two dominant readings of Arendt in the literature: Arendt as existentialist/phenomenologist and Arendt as Grecophile/republican. This is a mature work by a mature scholar who has been thinking about and working with Arendt's ideas for some time." — Sandra Hinchman, St. Lawrence University, coeditor of Hannah Arendt: Critical Essays
"This is a challenging, original, and engaging piece. Ring touches upon crucial themes and issues with courage and theoretical sophistication. She is fully aware of the originality and significance of her claim. Great insights are captured beautifully; memorable ideas and articulation abound in this work." — Alkis Kontos, University of Toronto
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Introduction
Hannah Arendt, Judaism, and Gender
Identity Politics and Multiculturalism
Assimilation and Gender
Race and Gender
The Context of Feminist Theory
Structure and Organization of the Book
Chapter 2
The Politics of the Eichmann Controversy
Arendt and Eichmann in Jerusalem
The Controversy
Chapter 3
Israel and the Holocaust
The Dawning of Reality
The Structure of Discomfort
Attempts at Rescue
Israeli Attitudes Toward the Holocaust Victims
Postwar Negotiations with Germany
The "Kastner Trial"
The Trial of Adolf Eichmann
Chapter 4
The New York Intellectuals and Eichmann in Jerusalem
The New York Intellectuals and Judaism
The New York Intellectuals and the Holocaust
Postwar Politics and the New Yorkers
The New York Intellectuals and Hannah Arendt
Chapter 5
Race, Gender and Judaism: The Eichmann Controversy as Case Study
Nazis and Sexuality
Racism, Sexism, and Jewish Masculinity
Assimilation as Gendered: The Partisan Review Crowd Revisited
Jewish Women
The Eichmann Controversy, Gender, and Judaism
Chapter 6
Transition
Thinking about Eichmann
The Political Consequences of Thinking
Arendt as Jewish Gadfly
Chapter 7
Biblical and Rabbinic Approaches to Thinking
Thinking Like a Jew
The Bible
Talmud
Midrash
The Middle Ages
Mysticism
Jewish Historical Consciousness
Chapter 8
Greek and Hebrew: The Structure of Thinking
The Structure of Hebrew Thought Compared to Greek
Rabbinic Thought
Scaffolding
Chapter 9
Toward Understanding Arendt as a Jewish Thinker
A Jewish Soul in a German Scholar
The Political Trouble with Philosophy Warm-Up Exercise: An Impressionistic Reading of "Truth and Politics"
Chapter 10
The Pariah and Parvenu in Thinking
Seeing and Hearing
Classical and Jewish Orthodoxy
Socrates as Pariah
The Wordly Results of Thinking
Chapter 11
Jewish Themes in Political Action and History
Judaism and the Space for Political Action
Judaism and Arendt's Concept of History
Community in Dark Times
Chapter 12
Conclusion
Judaism
Gender
Appendix Reviews of Raul Hilberg's The Destruction of the European Jews
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index