Gabriel Cooper

Gabriel Cooper is an Assistant Professor of German in the Department of German Language and Literatures at Oberlin College. His academic work focuses on the intersections of German literature, Jewish studies, and cultural history.

His research interests include:

• German Jewish Studies and cultural history
• Austrian literature and intellectual traditions
• New Historicism approaches to literary analysis
• Cultural studies with emphasis on Jewish diaspora
• German-Jewish relations in historical context

Cooper's scholarly work demonstrates a consistent focus on Jewish representation in German literature, examining how Jewish identity, power, and culture have been portrayed and negotiated in German-language works from the Enlightenment through contemporary times. His publications reveal particular interest in the complex relationship between Jewish communities and German cultural production, often exploring themes of power, representation, and cultural co-constitution.

His notable works include analyses of Moses Mendelssohn's Jerusalem, Theodor Herzl's Altneuland, and Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, examining messianic themes through a science fiction lens. He has also published on Irmtraud Morgner's Beatriz, Feuchtwanger's Jud Süß, and the representation of Jewish power in German literature more broadly.