Details of Research Outputs

Her biography of the Berlin salonnière Rahel Varnhagen, Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess, was Hannah Arendt's most systematic analysis of Jewish identity. Written in the 1930s, it interpreted its protagonist's Jewish identity as a function of her understanding of history. But Arendt's construal of Jewish selfhood in this way could be seen as exhibiting critical conundrums, revealed through considering her work as a whole -As an oeuvre. This holistic perspective shows that Arendt's philosophy of the human mind, which she formulated late in her life, conflicted with her earlier historical interpretation of Jewish identity in Rahel Varnhagen. This conflict confounded Arendt's analysis of Jewish selfhood in the biography. And, in general, it created a discord in her oeuvre -A crucial fracture between her philosophical thought and her historiography.