Despite not being one of the most represented plays written by the Austrian play-wright Nestroy (1801-1862), Zwei ewige Juden und Keiner (1846), shows to be an interest-ing farce, where several references to the author’s contemporary society and economy can be observed, as well as many irreverent allusions to the Jewish culture. Nestroy’s parody starts from the double title of the farce, hinting as it does at both the Wandering Jew and Wagner’s Flying Dutchman. A close reading of the most significant passages of the play will thus highlight those themes and underline the author’s intertextual ref-erences to the ancient legend of the Wandering Jew and to the main source of his play, that is the French vaudeville Le Nouveau Juif Errant by Antoin-François Varner. Both a comparative and a sociological approach will be employed in the interpretation of the passages of the plays in question.
SigMa - Rivista di Letterature comparate, Teatro e Arti dello spettacolo, N. 5 (2021)
Rocchi, Federica
2021
Abstract
Despite not being one of the most represented plays written by the Austrian play-wright Nestroy (1801-1862), Zwei ewige Juden und Keiner (1846), shows to be an interest-ing farce, where several references to the author’s contemporary society and economy can be observed, as well as many irreverent allusions to the Jewish culture. Nestroy’s parody starts from the double title of the farce, hinting as it does at both the Wandering Jew and Wagner’s Flying Dutchman. A close reading of the most significant passages of the play will thus highlight those themes and underline the author’s intertextual ref-erences to the ancient legend of the Wandering Jew and to the main source of his play, that is the French vaudeville Le Nouveau Juif Errant by Antoin-François Varner. Both a comparative and a sociological approach will be employed in the interpretation of the passages of the plays in question.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
