Beyond Virtually Jewish: New Authenticities and Real Imaginary Spaces in Europe
Author(s)
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Publication Date
Abstract
This essay explores two “real imaginary” worlds in Europe -- the “virtually Jewish” and the “imaginary wild west.” The author describes some of the ways that European non-Jews adopt, enact and transform elements of Jewish culture, using Jewish culture at times to create, mold, or find, their own identities. She also describes a surprising and remarkably multi-faceted Far West subculture in Europe that, stoked, marketed and even created by popular culture, forms a connected collection of “Wild Western spaces.” There are major differences between the “virtually Jewish” phenomenon and the “virtually western” European response to the American Frontier saga. One has to do with a real, traumatic issue: coming to terms with the Holocaust and its legacy of guilt and loss. The other is the embrace and elaboration of a collective fantasy and its translation into personal experience. But in certain ways they can be viewed as analogous phenomena. Both have to do with identity, and the ways in which people use other cultures to shape their own identities. In addition, in both “virtually Jewish” and “imaginary western” realms, the issue of “authenticity” is involved, as well as the distinction between creative cultural appropriation and mere imitation. Both entail the creation of “new authenticities” -- things, places and experiences that in themselves are real, with all the trappings of reality, but that are quite different from the “realities” on which they are modeled or that they are attempting to evoke. The process has led to the formation of models, stereotypes, modes of behavior and even traditions.
Topics
Jewish Culture Jewish Revival Jewish Space Main Topic: Culture and Heritage Klezmer Yiddish Attitudes to Jews Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations
Genre
Geographic Coverage
Original Language
Volume/Issue
99(4)
Page Number / Article Number
487-504
Related
Link
Link to article including link to pdf, Beyond Virtually Jewish: New Authenticities and Real Imaginary Spaces in Europe
PDF (via academia.edu), Beyond Virtually Jewish: New Authenticities and Real Imaginary Spaces in Europe
PDF (via academia.edu), Beyond Virtually Jewish: New Authenticities and Real Imaginary Spaces in Europe
Bibliographic Information
Beyond Virtually Jewish: New Authenticities and Real Imaginary Spaces in Europe. 2009: 487-504. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/object-eur77
