Introduction: The Western Wall of Russian Literature -- The Generative Model of "the jews" -- How Gogol's Iankel' Is Made -- The Discreet Pleasures of Liberalism -- Concerto for Flute Without Orchestra
Summary
Livak proposes that the idea of the Jews in European cultures has little to do with actual Jews, but rather is derived from the conception of Jews as Christianity's paradigmatic Other, eternally reenacting their morally ambiguous New Testament role as the Christ-bearing and Christ-killing chosen people of God. Through new readings of canonical Russian literary texts by Gogol, Turgenev, Chekhov, Babel, and others, the author argues that these European writers - Christian, secular, and Jewish - based their representation of Jews on the Christian exegetical tradition of anti-Judaism
