Page - 20 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

20 | Entangled Entertainers Austria (Institut für jüdische Geschichte Österreichs), which has published a sig- nifi cant number of scholarly studies, especially on medieval Jewish history, has also emerged from this political context.36 Students and scholars writing master’s theses and doctoral dissertations at some Austrian universities came into contact with scholars from other countries and conducted their research under their in- fl uence. Th is contact laid the foundation for the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Graz. At the University of Salzburg, the Center of Jewish Cultural History was founded at roughly the same time.37 Th ese academic studies stood in the shadow of pathbreaking work done by Anglo-American historians who had gained renown in the late 1980s with inter- nationally acclaimed publications on Viennese Jews in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Among the most important authors were Steven Beller, Mar- sha Rozenblit, and Robert Wistrich.38 Although they approached their topics from diff erent perspectives and also diff ered in their methodological approach, their studies evince some similarities. For example, they widely portray the Jew- ish past as a history of assimilation or acculturation vis-à-vis the dominant, majority culture—that is, as an attempt to gain social advancement, above all to become part of the bourgeoisie. Steven Beller writes in this context, “It is true that Jews used culture as a means of creating an assimilation.” Although Rozenblit doubts that Viennese Jews completely assimilated, she writes instead of their acculturation, “Along with the apparent success with which Viennese Jews outwardly acculturated, and with which some of their numbers almost totally assimilated. . . .”39 Th ese three scholars were all trained at leading universities outside of Austria and incorporated theoretical approaches and questions into their work that shaped international research in the late twentieth century. Th eir publications were examples of cutting-edge research and represented important landmarks for the Austrian research landscape. Th us, the h istoriographical narrative of ac- culturation and the paradigm of embourgeoisement established themselves as d e rigueur, in turn shaping the vast majority of subsequent publications on Austrian Jewry to this day.40 But it was not long before the historical narrative regarding Jewish adaptation encountered increasing criticism. In Jewish studies in the German-speaking world, this development began in the late 1990s. Within the framework of cultural studies, scholars began to question the static, monolithic concept of culture—a questioning that in turn led to the dissolution of this concept.41 Instead, they be- gan to perceive culture as dynamic and plural, making it diffi cult to write about Jewish adaptation to Viennese or Austrian culture. In addition, scholars working on the concept of cultural transfer drew attention to the fact that any group that adopts cultural standards aligns it with its own system of cultural interpretation, thereby altering it.42 Th e assumption that Jews, if they adopt cultural attitudes with which at least individual sectors of society identify, interpret these cultural This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.