Arabeske und Klage

Aspekte des Ausdrucks bei Else Lasker-Schüler

By (author) Julia Ingold

Book cover: Arabeske und Klage

Extent: 375 pages

Publisher: V&R unipress

Subjects: German Studies, Jewish Studies, Literary Studies

Language: German

Hardback (Published)

(August 2022)

ISBN: 9783847114383

6.3 x 9.33 inches

Price: $82.00

On back order

Julia Ingold stellt heraus, dass der Nachweis das Gestaltungsprinzips der Arabeske eine bisher unterschatzte Nahe Lasker-Schulers zur judischen Schrifttradition offenbart. Lasker-Schuler schreibt ihren Arabesken die Prekaritat des Ausdrucks von Leid und Ungerechtigkeit ein – ihr kunstlerischer Ausdruck impliziert die Moglichkeit des Schweigens.


In her forms, contents, texts and images Else Lasker-Schuler expresses performatively the possibility of the lack of expression. She describes terrible scenes in ostentatiously poetic pictures. On the side she herself comments and quotes constantly her own works. Both peculiarities stem from the same transmedial formal principle of the arabesque. The arabesque can not only serve as decorative frame, but also as hiding place to evade the prohibition of representation. The proof of this formal principle reveals Lasker-Schuler’s long underestimated influences of the Jewish scriptural tradition. In her arabesques Lasker-Schuler captures the precarity of the expression of distress and injustice – her artistic expression implies the possibility of silence.

  • By (author) Julia Ingold