SOURCE: "Human Fears in Jakob Wassermann's Writing," in Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 50, No. 3, 1951, pp. 309-19.

In the following essay, Blankenagel catalogs such various fears as fear of death, fear of the loss of affection, fear of change, fear of the future, and fear of others in the works of Jakob Wassermann.

Among numerous recurring motifs in Jakob Wasserman's narratives, human fears have a conspicuous place. Doubtless the prominence of this motif is symptomatic of an age marked by turbulent conflicts, by unrest, doubt, suspicion, covetousness, intolerance, social injustice, persecution, racial prejudice, violence, political upheavals, economic stress, and waning spirituality. But in addition it should be borne in mind that, as a representative of a race that has long lived under the shadow of persecution, Wassermann was particularly sensitive to fears induced by evil, injustice, and man's inhumanity to man. In his Selbstbetrachtungen he stated his...