Glückl von Hameln, Announcer of Jewish Emancipation and of the Jewish Novel in Germany

Abstract

Zichronos, by Glückl von Hameln, a memoir written by a Jewish matriarch from Hamburg at the end of the 17th and at the beginning of the 18th century, under the impact of sabataism and of the War of 30 Years, anticipates a new German-Jewish literary topos by means of the perplexities and doubts it represents. This topos is no longer based on the certainties of the religious doctrine and of traditional wisdom, but on the perception that an abyss exists between the world as it is and the world as it should be. Thus, literature searches for ways to bridge the distance between metaphysical doctrines and human realities, or represents the increasing estrangement and alienation ensuing from this distance. Key works of German-Jewish Literature in the 19th and 20th centuries face this abyss and represent it in a variety of ways. Glückl von Hameln’s autobiography can be understood as a prelude to this genre, founded on incomprehension, perplexity and nostalgia for a world impregnated with sense