The End of Univocal Identities. Cosmopolitanization and Hybridization of Identity Through the Case-Study of Central European Jews in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to enquire into modern man’s identity through a case-study, that of those Central European Jews who belonged to the intellectual elite in the first half of the Twentieth Century, selected for their vanguard position in the processes of individualization, cosmopolitanization and hybridization of identity which continue up to the present. After arguing that in the contemporary world it is no longer possible to hold a monist vision of identity that seeks to encapsulate this elusive phenomenon in single univocal categories such as culture or nation, which supposedly determine all its traits, an alternative conceptual framework is outlined to capture the multiple and dynamic nature of modern man’s identity drawing on authors such as Berger, Dubar, Martuccelli, et al. Thereafter, following the contributions of Traverso, amongst others, the case of the aforementioned group is analyzed, arguing for the thesis that these intellectuals were engaged in a extremely self-conscious process of identity construction grounded on their role as writers or scientists as well as on the two main sources for their cultural identity, their Jew and their national filiation, which were either reconciled, giving place to a stable intercultural synthesis, or split, producing a divided identity exposed to anomie. Their specific case may help in any case to understand the wide variety of strategies which individuals deploy in times of acute crisis in order to try to resolve the problem of identity, which is also a problem of meaning.