Sunday, April 25, 2010
Aesthetic Smackdown: the Perfect v. the Sublime
Which appeals to you more: the rationalist, pragmatic approach to universal morality of the late 18th century (think the various Mendelssohns even when they change their names to Bartholdy) or the deeply felt emotional romanticism of the early 1th century? How does Jewish involvement with both (and here, "Jewish" can mean Jews or Judaism or Jews and Judaism) create ambivalence for German thinkers of all creeds? Feel free to approach this question from multiple angles--Jews as a part of German culture, Jews as separate from an emerging sense of Germanism, a mutually construction majority culture, etc. From any direction, it begs some reflection on what is at stake for non-Jewish and Jewish Germans regarding integration and Emancipation.
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What appeals more - romanticism or pragmatism? The story of my life and family. As an artist studying to be a rabbi I live with a bunch of pragmatists. My husband is a lawyer and my two sons are both science types. My theology tends to begin with what I see in front of me, instead of asking why some image of God I have allows thus and so to happen in the world. Still, the emotional and aesthetic appeal of art and poetry touch my soul and bring me to God in a different way. I once wrote a paper on Else Lasker-Schueler and Kaethe Kollwitz as two German women artists (only the first is Jewish) with diametrically opposed approaches to the world. I admire Kollwitz's life more, but am still sustained by some of Schueler's work. If you're not familiar with them, you may want to google images related to the two of them.
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