The ring of myths : the Israelis, Wagner and the Nazis / Na'ama Sheffi ; translated from the Hebrew by Martha Grenzeback and Miriam Talisman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sheffi, Na'ama, author.

Contributor:

Grenzeback, Martha, translator.

Ṭalitman, Miryam, translator.

Standardized Title:

Ṭabaʻat ha-mitosim. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883--Public opinion.

Wagner, Richard.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (215 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Brighton ; Chicago, Illinois ; Toronto : Sussex Academic Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book examines the Israeli attitude towards Wagner in light of remembrance of the Holocaust and the shape of the new Israeli national identity. To many in Israel, Richard Wagner is a symbol of the concentration camps, or at least of a fierce sociopolitical controversy. Although the cancellation of a performance of the prelude to Wagner's Mestersinger von Nuremberg in 1938 was simply an impetuous response to the events of Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany, over the years this incident became part of a wider pattern as the Wagner boycott was extended to other composers suspected of collaborating with the Nazis. Today all the musicians living in the Third Reich have been rehabilitated except for Wagner, who is perceived as an intellectual whose views helped Hitler form his own racist world concept. Although the Israeli boycott is rooted in this connection between Wagner and Hitler, an additional and central aspect of it is the determination of politicians and broad sectors of the Israeli public to preserve the boycott as a fundamental part of Holocaust commemoration. An elucidation of the delicate intersection of culture and national identity, politics and society that underlies this issue reveals a pattern of collective behavior in which Wagner is a means of expressing other sociopolitical ideas.

Contents:

Front Cover

About the Author

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Preface

Glossary of Political Parties

1 An End that Marked a Beginning

2 Legends, Tribes, and Anti-Semitism: Ideas and Issues in Wagner's Work

3 Racism, Music, and Power: The Nazification of Wagner

4 Music, Politics, and Morality: The Beginning of the Boycott in Palestine

5 Toward Germany, Away from Germans

6 The 1960s: An End to Forgetting - The Establishment of Symbols

7 The 1970s: Political Furor, Musical Calm

8 The 1980s: Xenophobia and Overt Political Intervention

9 The 1990s: A Breakthrough and Stagnation

10 The Early 2000s: A Mounting Wall

11 Epilogue: Wagner and the Israelis - A Multifaceted Commemoration

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-902210-52-2

1-78284-004-4

1-78284-003-6

OCLC:

841515131