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  Challenging the Theater of Memory. Yiddish Song beyond Kitsch and Stereotype (Pilot Project) (2024) author(s): Benjamin Fox-Rosen, Isabel Frey published in: Research Catalogue
  The artistic research pilot project Challenging the Theater of Memory: Yiddish Song beyond Kitsch and Stereotype attempts to explore and deconstruct the ways that Jewishness is portrayed and embodied in the performance of Yiddish song through ethnographic research and musical performance. Sociologist Michal Y. Bodemann’s concept of the “Theater of Memory” (1996) articulates how Jewish participation in public life is co-opted into the German national narrative to affirm a post-Nazi multiculturalism [^1]. This framework suggests that the diversity and complexity of Jewish life are often instrumentalized, serving merely as a backdrop in the German or Austrian national narratives. As a result of these dynamics, Yiddish culture and music are frequently presented through nostalgic tropes, stereotypical representations and in conjunction with the massive loss of the Shoah. Such representations often bolster hegemonic narratives instead of empowering Jewish minorities. Consequently, Yiddish singers become instrumental in either reinforcing or contesting the theater of memory through their artistic choices and performances. Our central question as artist-researchers was: How can we, artistically and through scholarly reflection, challenge and subvert the Theater of Memory as Yiddish performers on stage? In our project we use the frame of a lecture / concert to reflect on how we encounter the Theater of Memory in our artistic practice. Drawing from our experiences of past performances, theory from both performance and Jewish studies as well as ethnomusicology, we developed a performance which weaves together music, our own writings and visuals. We presented this lecture-concert in multiple settings and documented it through auto-ethnographic research methods and audio/visual recordings. Project supported by the: -Music and Minorities Research Center -Austrian Science Fund (FWF): Z 352-G26 -Artistic Research Pilot Grant (2022) university of music and performing arts vienna (mdw)
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