Tabori e Wiener Schnitzel. La ballata del vecchio asburgico

Abstract

This essay aims to examine the mitteleuropean aspects within George Tabori’s poetics, especially focusing on the play Die Ballade vom Wiener Schnitzel, which is a small requiem for the Habsburg Era but on the other hand also a commentary on Jewish identity in contemporary Austria. The Schnitzel becomes ironically the symbol of imperial greatness – Tabori compares the shape of the monarchy to a huge cutlet – and turns into a plot device to chart the position of Jewish culture in today’s society and the shadows the past left behind.