Betsy van Schlun. Science and the Imagination: Mesmerism, Media and the Mind in Nineteenth-Century English and American Literature

Abstract

tions” (chapter title) of these four authors have to do with their – partially newly found, in all cases newly defined – Jewish identity. Probably the most impressive fiction discussed in this book and a true find, the still largely unpublished hundreds of short stories by Carl Weiselberger, deals precisely with the European Jewish past. These writers “are hardly ever engaged in representations of Jewish Canadian realities but very much in those of Jewish worlds lost” (181). Of course one can, as Banauch does, interpret this as writing from a transcultural angle, but the sophisticated interpretations provided in this book are best when taking the Jewish angle. When they attempt to accentuate transcultural dimensions, they often remain on the level of content and do not approach a more complex literary analysis. This, of course, is not surprising – I know very few examples where transculturality has actually been demonstrated as a method on the level of the literary discourse – the language – itself. Not even the most obvious question, that of language shift, has been adequately addressed. Charmingly, Banauch also provides a list of “to do’s” for research in “German Canadian Exile Studies”, mainly a series of names to be considered, including Ernest Bornemann, the multi-talented author of Das Patriarchat, sex and jazz researcher and novelist, who lived in Canada from 1940 until 1950. Beyond its status as a list with helpful suggestions for future researchers, this section also proves the significance of the area Eugen Banauch has chosen for himself. This is a very significant book opening up new ways of thinking about authors we need to either get to know or re-evaluate. It is a true experience.