Canettis Fischerle: eine Figur zwischen Masse, Macht und Blendung

Fischerle is a grotesquely deformed dwarf and a Jew who plays a central role in Canetti's novel "Die Blendung" (1936). While he knows how to derive advantage from his deformity, he sees in his Jewishness "one of those crimes that are their own punishment". He embodies many antisemitic stereotypes, partly because he has internalized them, partly because such is his character: the gigantic nose, the cowardice, the love of money (as a guarantee of security and status), the criminality, the sexual magnetism, and the intelligence. He can undergo transformation: as a scheming adaptation to his perception of his victims, and as involuntary assimilation. These, too, are Jewish characteristics. For Fischerle, they become fateful when he assimilates (in his own mind) so completely that he does not recognize the threats of his murderer as directed against himself. Suggests that Canetti may here have been issuing a timely warning to Jews against too much confidence in assimilation.