A German-Hebrew French Kiss: On Bilingual Homophony and Other Multilingual Intimacies in German-Jewish Literature

Abstract

Liminal case studies define the discursive limits of a given academic field. Margins define boundaries and, therefore, delimit content and context. Thus, the following marginal and rare textual examples of symmetric, non-transliterated German-Hebrew poetic encounters are of central concern to the nascent field of German-Hebrew studies. This study of idiosyncratic characteristics summarises, clarifies and further differentiates existing terminologies in order to contribute to the theoretic and self-reflective methodological formation of the abovementioned field. Common to the three samples chosen for this study is the hitherto overlooked phenomenon of bilingual homophony, as a subcategory of homonymy (from the Greek ὁμώνυμος [homonymos]: same name), that is to say, of words which have different meanings, yet sound and look identical in two languages (homophones and homographs, respectively). I argue that bilingual homophony is both a most intimate and also a dangerous form of contact between two languages. For in its intimate contact, it may undermine the signifying function of language by dissolving boundaries between semiotic and semantic distinctions. Bilingual homophony can lead to the poetic entanglement of tongues, but may also conduce to uncanny communication conflicts. For this reason, as a title for this study of German-Hebrew homophonic contact zones, I chose the metaphor of a bilingual