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Review: [untitled]Author(s): John PizerSource: MLN, Vol. 109, No. 3, German Issue (Apr., 1994), pp. 563-566Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2904666.

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sich schlichtals (Text-)Kritik erstehen. Gehe es darum, die "metapho-rischeKonstitution on Weiblichkeit"195) herauszuarbeiten,wie Garbe esbei Rousseau versucht,dann sei das Dilemma feministischen elbstver-standnisseseines der Zuschreibung: "wenn 'Weiblichkeit' also nur in-nerhalb diskursiver uschreibungenexistiert, ur wen sprichtdann derFeminismus?"195) Das Fazitjedoch, das ChristineGarbeaus diesemfemi-nistischenDilemma zieht, hatte,vor allem methodisch,pointierter eink6nnen:Feminismus, or allem im HinblickaufLiteraturkritik,iirfe ichnurnegativund das heiBe als "Dekonstruktionller Modelle von 'Weiblich-keit'und 'Mannlichkeit' n weiblichenund mannlichenTexten" (196) ver-stehen,ohne neue Konstruktionen nzubieten. Kritikgegen Utopie, De-konstruktion egen Konstruktion u setzen, l6st, wie mir scheint, dasDilemma noch nicht,wenn dabei eher unbestimmt leibt,daB dieses Di-lemmanicht nureines feministischer ritik,ondernderKritik iberhauptist. Gerade in bezug auf Rousseau hatte man im Riickgriffuf de Manzeigen k6nnen,daB dieses Dilemma der Zuschreibungendas des Gegen-standesderKritikst,die sichaufgrund es alternierenden rozessesgegen-seitiger nterpretation n ihrem vermeintlichenGegenstand,dem inter-pretierten ext, selbstals Kritik um Gegenstandwerden sollte.TheJohnsHopkinsUniversity BIANCA THEISEN

ManfredVoigts,OskarGoldberg.ermythischexperimentalwissenschaftler.inverdrdngtesapiteliidischer eschichte.Berlin:Agora, 1992. 375 pp.ErichUnger,Vom xpressionismusumMythosesHebriertums.chriften909bis 1931. Ed. ManfredVoigts.Wiurzburg: 6nigshausen& Neumann, 1992. xviii+ 151 pp.Those few ndividualsfamiliarwiththe name OskarGoldbergare likely obelong to one oftwo sometimes ntersecting) roups.One groupis consti-tutedbyreadersof GershomScholem, the eminenttwentieth entury x-perton Jewishmysticism. he othergroup is made up of Thomas Mannscholarswho recognize Goldberg as the contemporaryhistoricalfigureupon whomMann drew n creatingDr. Chaim Breisacher n his novelDr.Faustus.Both Scholem and Mann portrayGoldberg in highlyunflatteringterms.Scholem saw thisprolific cholar,advocatesofmissionary udaism,and radical anti-Zionist s a brilliantbut insane pseudo-scientist.Mann,who was greatly ndebted to Goldberg for the theological perspectiveshe introduced in his Joseph ovels, portraysGoldberg (in the guise ofBreisacher) as a repulsive, ccentricBible scholar,whose interpretationfthe Pentateuchmakes him appear to be a Jewish ascist.ManfredVoigts'study-the first ook-lengthmonographdevotedtoGoldberg-provides a

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564 REVIEWScorrective o these one-sided views. t also offers welcome overview fGoldberg's ife nd works as well as those of his small coterieofdisciples).He showsGoldbergto be a profound nd originalthinkerwithout overingup thedarkside caricaturedbyMann,namely,hismegalomania and com-plete intolerance of divergent iewpointswithin he community fJewishscholars.Goldberg's egotismcould be extreme;Voigts ndicatesthatthis"mythicexperimental cientist" ame perilously lose to blamingtheJewsfortheHolocaust when he suggestedJewishassimilationist endencies and em-brace of"Enlightenment"hought Goldbergtracesthis atter endency llthewayback to Maimonedes) were the principal causes of internationalanti-Semitism.utVoigts howsthatGoldbergwas stronglynti-nationalist,respectful f and quite knowledgeableabout myth nd mysticismn whatwe would termtoday"third-worldultures," nd a fundamental pponentof National Socialism and itsgeopoliticaltendencies.Goldberghimself awgeopolitics in its positive form as transnational n its scope, as "den'transzendental-politischenkt' des Wunders" 263).Goldbergwasborn (1885) and educated inBerlin, nd was nfluenced nhisearlyTalmudic explorationsbytheExpressionistmovementwhich con-stituted uch an importantpartof thiscity's ultural ife n the first earsof the twentieth entury.His firstmajor work,Die finf BiicherMosis einZahlengebdude1908), attempts new,numerically-basednterpretationfthe Pentateuch,reflecting lready Goldberg's lifelongattempt o groundhismystical heological speculations n a scientific bjectivity. e attemptstoprovethatthemathematical roperties f the Hebrew anguagepointtothe Pentateuch'sdivine nspiration, ven (indeed especially)thosepassageswhich seem to be arithmeticallyncongruous and thereforeheld to beproofthat thePentateuch was a purelyhuman creation.His mostoriginaland influentialwork (Thomas Mann apparentlyread it three times),DieWirklichkeiterHebrder1925), attempts o refute heassumption hatJuda-ism simply urnedawayfrompolytheism nd introduced monotheismtothe world.Goldberg rejects he notion thatUrhebraic dolatrywasreplacedbyAbraham's ntroduction fa singleGod who formed covenantwith heJewish eople. Instead,he believesthe entire Pentateuch s informedbyadialectical opposition between "das Systemder Vielheitder Elohim,"and"Elohim IHWH," neitherall-powerful or omnipresent,who would over-come thecycleof ife nd death introducedbythesystem.n orderto do so,thispre-worldly od needs human assistance n the formof culticritual."Elohim IHWH" musttherefore ecome the national God of one people.Onlythus can this God reattainHis universalpre-worldlytatus nd elimi-nate biological circularity,ndeed, biology tself.n most of his subsequentworksGoldbergdevotedhimself o admonishingtheJewsforabandoningcultic ritual and pursuingmundane activities.He argues fora return toBiblicalpractices nd a rejectionof the "Enlightened"Judaismharacteris-ticofMaimonedes and mostsubsequentOrthodoxJewish heologians.He

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particularlybhorredmodernJudaism'sdisinclination owardsproselytiz-ing,and soughtto inspire "MissionerendesHebraertum."After e fledtoAmericafromFrance in 1941,Goldberg ed a many-facetedife,writing nsupernaturaloccurrences,becoming involvedwithvarious medical soci-eties, nd tryingopromotehisreligiousviews.He returned oEurope afterthe war and died in Nice in 1952.Voigts' book is lucid and convincing.He is to be commended forhispainstaking rchivalresearch,his udicious sifting f largelyunexamined"NachlaB"materials o discoverdocumentsrelevant osucha groundbreak-ingand comprehensive ntroduction. he onlyweaknessofthe book is theoccasional abruptness f tstransitions. houghVoigtsdefendsthetempo-ral confusionof his study n thegroundthatthere are large gaps in Gold-berg'sbiographicrecords (11), itstillcomes as a completeshockwhenwefindthedevout,Orthodoxand notyetterriblynconventionalyoungman,suddenly nd without xplanation, n themountainsofTibet,engaging nmeditation, eciting mantra, nd experiencing upersensory,aranormalevents But on balance, thisstudy swell-organized nd easyto follow.One ofGoldberg'smostdevotedand scholarly iscipleswas ErichUnger,and Unger's engagementwithGoldberg's workconstitutes significantelement of thismonograph. It is thusnot surprising hatVoigtshas alsodevotedhimself o the taskofeditinga collectionofUnger's shortworks,written etween1909 and 1931. The title f thiscollection (which ncludessome previously npublishedmaterial),Vom xpressionismusumMythosesHebrdertums,eflects oth the mpactofExpressionism n Ungerand Gold-berg and theirattempt o articulatethemythic omponentof earlyJuda-ism. Most of the earliestwritings ppearing in this collection were firstpublished in DerSturm,ne ofGermany's oremost xpressionistournals,and theyncludebothcritical ssays nd dramatic ketches.Unger's affinityto Expressionist hought s reflected n his interpretation f Nietzscheanpathos as the violentovercomingof the formsofpure cognitionand theself-negatingendencies of the human will.Nietzsche's life-philosophysinterpreted s an externalization f unconsciouswill-generated houghts.His workthusstandsout as theantipode to Kantiansystematic hilosophy,opposed by Unger (and otherExpressionists)for tsabstract igorand itstendency o insistently uestion itsown observations.Nietzsche's thoughtrepresentsforUnger the sublationof the strictdistinctionbetweencon-scious and subconscious cognition.The Expressionist nclinationto con-flatethese tworealms (and thus to obliterateboth linear temporalityndconventionalperceptions of spatiality) s evident in such brieffictionalefforts,ncludedbyVoigts n thiscollection, s "Vorwortu einemRoman"(1912). ButUnger's emphasison concreterealityn itsphenomenal resis-tance to abstract ystematichought emainedconsistent.He expressesthebelief that all political ideology is contradictedby the resistanceof thematerialand economic motiveswhichdrivesociety nd which constitute"dereigentlicheund letzte Grundder chaotischenGemeinschaft"71).

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566 REVIEWSThere is even a theological,metaphysical asis for the universalchaoswhich abides in thatfoundational ocus where "philosophersof the spirit"

would impose theirsystems, amely,the "Nullpunkt" t the core of allantithetical xtremes.This "Sch6pferischendifferenz"bothUnger's posi-tivereviewof the thusly-titledook by Salomo Friedlfnderand his laterdefense of thiswork noppositionto Friedlfnder's wnsubsequentKantiantendencies are reprintedhere) can onlybe counteractedbythe "playful"mediation of a conciliating subject, and the evocation of completenessthrough he "totalityf thepossible."Like Goldberg,Ungerbelievedspiritcould onlyoppose phenomenal chaos by uxtaposing "thepossible" in itsplenitude to fragmentaryeality. n the longest essayof the book, "DerUniversalismus es Hebraertums" 1929/30), Unger defendsGoldberg'sDie WirklichkeiterHebrderagainstcholem's veiledcriticismfthiswork s amodernmanifestation f Sabbatinicmessianismby contrastingGoldberg'scomprehensiveness nd elucidationofstructuralotality ith hefragmen-tariness f Cabbalisticthought s expressed n thetheology f Sabbatinism.While Cabbalism never transcendssuch a disconnected theological ap-proach, Unger believes Goldberg showshow ancient Hebrew ritual is asymptomf ancientHebrewuniversalism,he concretemethodbywhichtoachieve "die Ausdehnungm6glicherSteigerungauf das Ganze der biolo-gischenWirklichkeit"136, Unger's italics).Ungeraccuses Scholemof hid-ing behind the mask of unprejudiced objectivitywhile eliding his ownsystematic ositionand the real priorities f his essay"Die Theologie desSabbatianismus m Lichte AbrahamCardosos,"towhichUnger'sessay s anoppositional reply.Goldberg's drivetowards he evocationofreligiousto-talitys made to stand n contrast oScholem's alleged duplicity nd lack ofhistorical ensibility.he telos offorging living otalityrom heantithesesbetween the universaland the particular,betweenunity nd multiplicity(this atter ublation s seen to be the achievement fmyth) s also evidentin such pieces as "Mythosund Wirklichkeit" 1928) and "Der Krieg"(1915/16).

This collection of nineteen essays s preceded bya usefulforeword,nwhichVoigtsprovides brief ummaryf theevolutionofUnger'sthoughtsand describeshisproductive, lthough argely onflictual, elationshipwithScholem und WalterBenjamin.Goldberg's and Unger's important ut ne-glectedrole in inspiring hetrajectoryf theiroftenoppositionalthought,as well as thatofother well-knownarlytwentiethenturyGerman/Jewishwriters uch as Rosenzweigand Buber, is also a significant opic in Voigts'Goldberg monograph.Given this nfluence, nd giventhe originalityndfresh nsights f Goldberg and Unger in their own right,Voigtsdeservespraise,as both editorand intellectualbiographer, orhelpingto overcometheirundeservedneglect.Louisiana StateUniversity JOHN PIZER