During the mid-19th century, the works of Arthur Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner sparked an impulse toward German cultural renewal and social change that drew on religious myth, metaphysics, and spiritualism. The only problem was that their works were deeply antisemitic and entangled with claims that Jews were incapable of creating compassionate art. By looking at the works of Jewish composers and writers who contributed to a lively and robust biblical theatre in fin de siecle Vienna, Caroline A. Kita shows how they reimagined myths of the Old Testament to offer new aesthetic and ethical views of compassion. These Jewish artists, including Gustav Mahler, Siegfried Lipiner, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Stefan Zweig, and Arnold Schoenberg, reimagined biblical stories through the lens of the modern Jewish subject to plead for justice and compassion toward the Jewish community. By tracing responses to antisemitic discourses of compassion, Kita reflects on the explicitly and increasingly troubled political and social dynamics at the end of the Habsburg Empire.

About the Author

Caroline A. Kita is Assistant Professor in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Washington University in St. Louis.

Reviews

Given the variety of artistic works examined, this will surely be useful to the likely graduate students who will use this work.

* Association of Jewish Libraries *

In her epilogue, Kita makes a convincing case for the continued need for compas- sionate art in our own time, as the works explored in this volume serve as testaments of the transformative potential of such art, ultimately "offering hope and comfort in our shared humanity" (166). In addition to serving as a valuable contribution to German Jewish studies, Jewish Difference and the Arts in Vienna offers a new framework for reading fin-de-siecle Viennese literature and culture and will thus be of interest to Germanists and musicologists alike.

* German Studies Review *

This book is a true testament to the idea that the musical notes on a page are the result of a human story. In this case, the human story behind the works of these composers is both complicated and compassionate in a variety of ways.

-- Karen L. Uslin - Rowan University * AJS Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253040534
Author Caroline A. Kita
Format Hardback
Page Count 222
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press