Description:
Cultural historians have long been intrigued with how such cultural treasures as impressionism, psychoanalysis, and the New School of Music could flourish in the depleted soils of fin-de-siècle Vienna--and, not very far behind, Budapest--at a time when the empire was exhausted and eroding. "Was this culture inspired by the 'slight rapture of death,'" asks cultural historian Péter Hanák, "or was the whole structure void of a foundation and its glitter nothing more than a mirage?" The period prior to the First World War was indeed a golden age, albeit wobbly. The formal tone and well-organized presentation of these essays conceals a sprightly diversity of themes. What thread can possibly link the fin-de-siècle perception of death, popular letters of social grievance, and the worldwide success of the theatrical genre common to both cities--operetta? It is the author's concept of cultural history that provides the thread. Hanák's focus is not trained on cultural masterpieces, but on the "real world" of urban mass culture and the cultural products of peasants. The theme of urbanization, dealing with all major areas of cultural history, opens the study. Chapter 2 looks at the development of prejudice in this Central European cauldron, analyzing anti-German and anti-Semitic images. The impact of politics on the cultures of both cities gives this work its title essay. Vienna would be characterized by the image of the garden; Budapest, with its factories and café culture, is characterized by the "workshop" conceit. The great upheavals of the century's end would be played out in a field of opposites. The final chapter offers a unique subject of inquiry--the letters written by ordinary soldiers during the First World War allows Hanák to examine the social perceptions of the lower classes and chronicle the shift toward the culture's revolutionary mood. This scholarly work, presenting as it does a specific historical moment, will appeal to the cultural historian eager to learn more about Hanák's themes presented through an original point of view. --Hollis Giammatteo
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