DOC Symptoms of Modernity: Jews and Queers in Late-Twentieth-Century Vienna by Matti Bunzl in History

Description

Intimate; humorous; and refreshingly candid; this extraordinary work is a remarkable record—in both words and images—of Jewish life in a Polish town before World War II as seen through the eyes of an inquisitive boy. Mayer Kirshenblatt; who was born in 1916 and left Poland for Canada in 1934; taught himself to paint at age 73. Since then; he has made it his mission to remember the world of his childhood in living color; "lest future generations know more about how Jews died than how they lived." This volume presents his lively paintings woven together with a marvelous narrative created from interviews that took place over forty years between Mayer and his daughter; Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. Together; father and daughter draw readers into a lost world—we roam the streets and courtyards of the town of Apt; witness details of daily life; and meet those who lived and worked there: the pregnant hunchback; who stood under the wedding canopy just hours before giving birth; the khayder teacher caught in bed with the drummer's wife; the cobbler's son; who was dressed in white pajamas all his life to fool the angel of death; the corpse that was shaved; and the couple who held a "black wedding" in the cemetery during a cholera epidemic. This moving collaboration—a unique blend of memoir; oral history; and artistic interpretation—is at once a labor of love; a tribute to a distinctive imagination; and a brilliant portrait of life in one Jewish home town.Copub: The Judah L. Magnes Museum