Competing Germanies
Nazi, Antifascist, and Jewish Theater in German Argentina, 1933–1965
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Cornell University Press
Published:15th Feb '20
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
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- Paperback£22.99(9781501739866)
This book explores the theatrical rivalry between German antifascists and nationalists in Buenos Aires after World War II, focusing on community-building and cultural identity.
Following World War II, German antifascists and nationalists in Buenos Aires viewed theater as a vital tool for their politically charged community-building efforts. Each group invested significant resources into competing against its rival on stage, transforming the theater into a battleground for ideological supremacy. Competing Germanies delves into the journeys of various stage actors who transitioned from European theaters to Buenos Aires, highlighting the intense rivalry between two of Argentina's most influential immigrant factions: German nationalists and antifascists, both Jewish and non-Jewish. The performances became a medium for articulating starkly opposing Nazi, antifascist, and Zionist viewpoints, while behind the scenes, tensions brewed within partisan institutions and among theatergoers, revealing a complex web of political allegiance and cultural identity struggles.
The book uncovers the intricate interplay and even mimicry between antifascist and nationalist German cultural institutions. The performances at both theaters not only served as a platform for political expression but also resonated with broader themes of diaspora, including the challenges of returning to one's homeland and the connections among diverse communities. Despite their apparent differences, the antifascist Free German Stage and the nationalist German Theater employed similar strategies for community-building, intercultural engagement, and dramatic expression, demonstrating how shared experiences of displacement shaped their artistic endeavors.
With its interdisciplinary approach blending German, Jewish, and Latin American studies, Competing Germanies offers a fresh perspective in exile studies through the lens of theater. It emphasizes the narratives of both the victims of Nazism and its supporters, contributing to a deeper understanding of cultural dynamics during a tumultuous historical period.
Although Competing Germanies is a highly specialized study, it has broad implications and should elicit wide interest, especially given current global migrant and refugee crises. What this book illustrates so clearly is that anyone can become a refugee at any time and that all the world is but a stage wherein men and women are merely players with exit and entrance visas.
* EuropeNow *A real strength of the book is the centering of theater and performance. It allows Kelz to document the nature of the German-speaking communities that emerged and to analyze how performance itself transmitted a sense of cultural identification. [...] Overall, this book's focus on theater allows Kelz to illuminate a broader history of German cultural production in Buenos Aires over three decades in the midtwentieth century and the interplay between institutions and larger communities
* The German Quarterly *By offering insight into the workings of German immigrant theater in Argentina, Competing Germanies adds a much-needed cultural dimension and revives discourses over German-Argentine relations before and after 1945. The interdisciplinary and transnational nature of this text will be most useful to scholars working in history, Jewish culture and society, arts and/in exile, and theater and performance studies, and will establish a point of departure for related research projects in these and other areas
* Central European History *In this impressive study, Robert Kelz portrays the cultural landscape and rivaling constituencies of German Argentina through the lens of theater performances. [...] In accessible and nuanced scholarly prose, Kelz presents the results of impeccable and extensive research, which he conducted in public archives and private collections in Argentina, Austria, and Germany
* H-Net Reviews *It is a book overflowing with data, rich in the perspectives it opens up and with new information, an original contribution to studies on Nazis and anti-Nazis in Argentina
* Iberoamericana America Latina-Espana-Portugal *Robert Kelz provides a quite different and novel slant in his splendid study of German exile literature from an earlier age. [...] Keltz offers a cross-cultural, polyglot blend of German, Jewish and Latin-American polemic that will be welcomed by cultural historians and students of international affairs.
ISBN: 9781501739859
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 30mm
Weight: 907g
372 pages