1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910842301403321

Autore

Kelz Robert Vincent

Titolo

Competing Germanies : Nazi, Antifascist, and Jewish Theater in German Argentina, 1933-1965 / / Robert Kelz

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, NY : , : Cornell University Press, , [2020]

©2020

ISBN

1-5017-3988-3

1-5017-3987-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource

Collana

Signale: Modern German Letters, Cultures, and Thought

Disciplina

792.098209/04

Soggetti

German drama - 20th century - History and criticism

Germans - Argentina - History - 20th century

Jewish theater - Argentina - History - 20th century

National socialism and theater - Argentina - History

Ethnic theater - Argentina - History - 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction: Argentina's Competing German Theaters -- 1. German Buenos Aires Asunder -- 2. Theater on the Move: Routes to Buenos Aires -- 3. Staging Dissidence: The Free German Stage -- 4. Hyphenated Hitlerism: Transatlantic Nazism Confronts Cultural Hybridity -- 5. Enduring Competition: German Theater in Argentina, 1946-1965 -- Epilogue -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Following World War II, German antifascists and nationalists in Buenos Aires believed theater was crucial to their highly politicized efforts at community-building, and each population devoted considerable resources to competing against its rival onstage. Competing Germanies tracks the paths of several stage actors from European theaters to Buenos Aires and explores how two of Argentina's most influential immigrant groups, German nationalists and antifascists (Jewish and non-Jewish), clashed on the city's stages. Covered widely in German- and Spanish-language media, theatrical performances articulated strident Nazi, antifascist, and Zionist platforms. Meanwhile, as their



thespian representatives grappled onstage for political leverage among emigrants and Argentines, behind the curtain, conflicts simmered within partisan institutions and among theatergoers. Publicly they projected unity, but offstage nationalist, antifascist, and Zionist populations were rife with infighting on issues of political allegiance, cultural identity and, especially, integration with their Argentine hosts.Competing Germanies reveals interchange and even mimicry between antifascist and nationalist German cultural institutions. Furthermore, performances at both theaters also fit into contemporary invocations of diasporas, including taboos and postponements of return to the native country, connections among multiple communities, and forms of longing, memory, and (dis)identification. Sharply divergent at first glance, their shared condition as cultural institutions of emigrant populations caused the antifascist Free German Stage and the nationalist German Theater to adopt parallel tactics in community-building, intercultural relationships, and dramatic performance.Its cross-cultural, polyglot blend of German, Jewish, and Latin American studies gives Competing Germanies a wide, interdisciplinary academic appeal and offers a novel intervention in Exile studies through the lens of theater, in which both victims of Nazism and its adherents remain in focus.