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about it, is the real monster. Almost bankrupt, he commits insurance fraud to
maintain the appearance of his prosperity. Yet all of this remains hidden from his
family and other people. Th
ey are too busy with their daily routines to uncover
his machinations. Ultimately, momentary impressions defi ne everyday life and
erode trust between individuals.
Th e Persistent Present
At this juncture, we should not regard Stephen Kern’s conclusion that the pro-
ponents of an expanded present were Jewish as a stark opposition between the
ways Jews and non-Jews conceived of time, but rather as a point of departure for
further research on the subject. As we have seen, there were no exclusive markers
of consciousness among Jews (Bewussts
einsmerkmale bei Juden) that would allow
us to make a hard and fast contrast. In general, a certain conception of place and
time may be more pronounced among Jews than non-Jews, due to the formers’
desire for a Jewish–non-Jewish coexistence. However, since non-Jews also ex-
pressed a continuous present in various forms of cultural production, we can-
not consider this an exclusively Jewish concept. For instance, we see a persistent
present in the work of Gustav K limt (1862–1918).82 His paintings are charac-
terized by their equilibrium. Th
ese dreamlike images evoke an Arcadian realm.
Further, they convey a state of passivity that is embedded in a seemingly everlast-
ing temporal framework. We also see such a notion at work in Leopold Andrian-
Werburg’s 1895 Der Garten der Erkenntnis (Th
e garden of knowledge), in Richard
Beer-Hofmann’s 1900 novel Der Tod Georgs (Th
e death of Georg), and in Hugo
von Hofmannsthal’s 1893 Der Tor und der Tod (Death and the fool).83 While
Beer-Hofmann may certainly be considered a Jewish author, Andrian-Werburg’s
and Hofmannsthal’s status as Jewish remains open to debate.84 Nevertheless, their
writings convey the idea of a persistent present.
Th e Journey to Grosswardein
One such continuous present may also be found in the piece Die Reise nach Gross-
wardein (Th
e journey to Grosswardein). Like Little Kohn, it was performed by the
Budapest Orpheum Society.85 Essentially, the plot revolves around the attempt
of a Jew who is evidently from Vienna to travel to Grosswar
dein (present-day
Oradea in Romania). Josef Armin’s farce is divided into fi ve scenes, all of which
take place at a train station.
Lipperl, who is fl
eeing from his wife, enters at the beginning of the perfor-
mance. He feels oppressed by her, and in a full-throated monologue, he huff
s
and puff s that she forbids him from speaking. Having arrived at the train station
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Entangled Entertainers
Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna
- Titel
- Entangled Entertainers
- Untertitel
- Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna
- Autor
- Klaus Hödl
- Verlag
- Berghahn Books
- Datum
- 2019
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-1-78920-031-7
- Abmessungen
- 14.86 x 23.2 cm
- Seiten
- 196
- Kategorien
- Geschichte Vor 1918
- International
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- Introduction 1
- 1. Jews in Viennese Popular Culture around 1900 as Research Topic 13
- 2. Jewish Volkssänger and Musical Performers in Vienna around 1900 44
- 3. Jewishness and the Viennese Volkssänger 78
- 4. Jewish Spaces of Retreat at the Turn of the Twentieth Century 121
- 5. From Difference to Similarity 148
- Conclusion 163
- Bibliography 166
- Index 179