Gypsy/Klezmer Dialectics: Jewish and Romani Traces and Erasures in Contemporary European World Music
Author(s)
Publication Name
Publication Date
Abstract
As klezmer and Balkan Romani music have become popularised in Western Europe since 1989, an increasing number of performers in both of these genres are non-Roma and non-Jews. This holds especially true for the new performance complex Gypsy/klezmer that imputes connections between two of Europe's quintessential Others, and, in transforming their ethnic specificities into a generic hybridity, facilitates the appropriation of their cultural goods by outsiders. I interrogate this complex and its semiotic conflation of Jews (absent Others constituted historically as over-present) and Roma (too-present Others who are historically absent) in the current European political climate that is multiculturalist but increasingly xenophobic. I note that Gypsy/klezmer performers claim a double authenticity based on a kind of hybridity that validates appropriation. I argue that specificities of Romani and Jewish geography, history and musical style are erased precisely as the Gypsy/klezmer complex becomes more popular.
Topics
Main Topic: Culture and Heritage Klezmer Jewish Music Jewish Heritage Multiculturalism Globalisation Memory
Genre
Geographic Coverage
Original Language
Volume/Issue
24(2)
Page Number / Article Number
159-180
DOI
Link
Link to article (paywalled), Gypsy/Klezmer Dialectics: Jewish and Romani Traces and Erasures in Contemporary European World Music
PDF (via academia.edu), Gypsy/Klezmer Dialectics: Jewish and Romani Traces and Erasures in Contemporary European World Music
PDF (via academia.edu), Gypsy/Klezmer Dialectics: Jewish and Romani Traces and Erasures in Contemporary European World Music
Bibliographic Information
Gypsy/Klezmer Dialectics: Jewish and Romani Traces and Erasures in Contemporary European World Music. 2015: 159-180. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.1080/17411912.2015.1015040
