Inside the Antisemitic Mind
The Language of Jew-Hatred in Contemporary Germany
Distributed for Brandeis University Press
454 pages
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6 1/4 x 9 1/4
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
Preface to the English Edition (2016) • Preface to the German Edition (2013) • Notational Conventions • INTRODUCTION: THE NEED FOR THIS BOOK • HOSTILITY TOWARD JEWS AND LANGUAGE: VERBAL IMPOSITION OF POWER AND VIOLENCE • Language as a Cognitive System and Communicative Instrument for Action • The Power of Language as Violence through Language • The Reconstruction of Antisemitic Conceptualizations: Linguistic Utterances as Traces of Cultural, Cognitive, and Emotional Processes • Conceptual and Verbal Antisemitism • Conclusion • HOSTILE STEREOTYPES OF JEWS AND THEIR HISTORICAL ROOTS • On the Genesis of Resentment toward Jews: Why the Jews? • Survival and Resistance of Judeophobic Stereotypes in Modern Times • Antisemitism as State Doctrine: The “Final Solution” as the Ultimate Consequence of Judeophobia • Hostility toward Jews after 1945: Minimization of the Caesura in Civilization and Withholding of Empathy • Present-Day Hostility toward Jews: The “New” Antisemitism of the Twenty-First Century • Conclusion • PRESENT-DAY VERBALIZATION OF STEREOTYPES • Stereotypes, Mental Models, Prejudices, Clichés, and Stock Phrases: Terminological and Conceptual Clarifications • Current Stereotypes and Their Verbal Manifestations • Conclusion • ECHO OF THE PAST: “THE INSOLENT JEW IS HARASSING GERMANS ONCE AGAIN!” • Components of Nazi Speech in Contemporary Discourse Hostile toward Jews • Lexical Analyses of Insolence/Insolent and Harass/Harassment • Conclusion • ANTI-ISRAELISM AS A MODERN VARIANT OF VERBAL ANTISEMITISM: THE MODERN CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE COLLECTIVE JEW • Criticism of Israel versus Anti-Israelism: Two Different Speech Acts • Characteristics of Antisemitic Anti-Israelism • Derealization: False Statements, Concealment, Distortion, Biased Perspective • “As I just read in my paper . . .” —Intertextual Allusions and Verbal Convergences: On the Potential Effects of One-Sided Reports on the Middle East Conflict • Conclusion • A COMPARISON WITH OTHER COUNTRIES IN EUROPE: RESULTS OF A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS • Austria • Switzerland • The Netherlands • Spain • Belgium • England • Ireland • Sweden • Conclusion • THE EMOTIONAL BASIS OF MODERN HOSTILITY TOWARD JEWS • On the Relevance of Emotions to the Analysis of Antisemitism • The Emotional Potential of Antisemitic Texts: Expression of Emotions and Description of Feelings • The Obsessive Dimension • Contrary to Reason: On the Dominance of the Irrational Dimension in Antisemitic Texts • Fallacies and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies • Contradictions and Paradoxes: Statements in Collision • Hate without a Real Object: Jew as an Abstract Notion • Conclusion • ACTS OF VERBAL VIOLENCE • Abuse, Insults, Threats, Curses • Hostility toward Jews as a Missionary Urge: Moral Appeals and Advice • Suggestions for Solving the “Jewish Problem”: “Exterminate them for good!” and “Dissolve the state of Israel” • Conclusion • TEXTUAL STRATEGIES AND PATTERNS OF ARGUMENTATION • Communicative Strategies and Argumentative Elaboration • Strategies of Legitimation and Self-Aggrandizement: “I am a humanist through and through!” • Strategies of Avoidance and Self-Defense: “I am no antisemite!” • Strategies of Justification: “You provoke that!” • Relativizing Strategies: “After all, it’s 2007!” • Strategies of Differentiation: “You are one team” • Conclusion • APPENDIX: The Basic Corpus—Letters to the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, 2002–2012 • Notes • Bibliography • Index
Review Quotes
Yehuda Bauer, Professor of Holocaust Studies, Hebrew University, and academic advisor to Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
“Inside the Antisemetic Mind is an absolute groundbreaker in antisemitism research. Such a detailed study based on linguistic analysis has never been done before. It makes a highly significant contribution to the discussion on antisemitism.”
Walter Laqueur, coauthor of The Future of Terrorism: ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the Alt-Right
“A Herculean task: the comprehensive and precise analysis of current anti-Jewish language usage. The authors have mastered an unenviable, yet necessary and crucial enterprise.”
Lars Rensmann, Professor of European Politics and Society, University of Groningen
“The first systematic analysis of antisemitic ideas and language in the 21st century, this work breaks new ground. The book is an indispensable contribution to the interdisciplinary study of antisemitism in contemporary society.”
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