In Exile : Geography, Philosophy and Judaic Thought

In In Exile, Jessica Dubow situates exile in a new context in which it holds both critical capacity and political potential. She not only outlines the origin of the relationship between geography and philosophy in the Judaic intellectual tradition; but also makes secular claims out of Judaism's theological sources.

Analysing key Jewish intellectual figures such as Walter Benjamin, Isaiah Berlin and Hannah Arendt, Dubow presents exile as a form of thought and action and reconsiders attachments of identity, history, time, and territory. In her unique combination of geography, philosophy and some of the key themes in Judaic thought, she has constructed more than a study of interdisciplinary fluidity. She delivers a striking case for understanding the critical imagination in spatial terms and traces this back to a fundamental – if forgotten – exilic pull at the heart of Judaic thought.

“This is a brilliant and profound study of the spatial basis of Judaic thought. Thanks to a constellatory investigation of thinkers such as Franz Rosenzweig, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin, she shows how exile produces a form of critical surplus, a distinct form of critical consciousness.” —Michael Löwy, Emeritus Research Director, National Centre for Scientific Research, France

“From a cultural geographer's appreciation for landscape, emplacement, and subjectivity, Jessica Dubow brilliantly explores the valencies of exile, rootedness, territoriality, and belonging. With eloquence and erudition, she draws on the deepest knowledge of the history of art and aesthetics, literary theory, history of philosophy, and the widest possibilities of Frankfurt-inclined critical theory.” —Geoff Eley, Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

“In beautifully evocative prose, the author offers the fresh voice of a cultural geographer to the analysis of secular Jewish thought. In doing so, Dubow gifts us with a genuinely novel approach to the dialectics of secularism and theology. This book opens our understanding of the space that exile can carve out for intellectual creativity.” —Scott Spector, Rudolf Mrázek Professor of History and German Studies, University of Michigan, USA