Staging Synchronization: Yiddish Theatre in the Interwar Paris and the Dynamics of Cultural Negotiation

👤Author

Name: Michèle Fornhoff-Levitt
Affiliation: Sorbonne Université / Université libre de Bruxelles, France / Belgium
Contact: michele.fornhoff@ulb.be

📄Article

Citation Recommendation: Fornhoff-Levitt, Michèle. “Staging Synchronization: Yiddish Theatre in the Interwar Paris and the Dynamics of Cultural Negotiation”. Synthesis, 4 / 2025: 161-201.
Pages: 161-201
Language: English
URL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2025/4/7_Fornhoff-Levitt.pdf

Abstract

This article explores Yiddish theatre in interwar Paris (1919–1939) as a case study of cultural synchronization and resistance within a semi-peripheral theatrical system. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of E. Lovinescu, Pascale Casanova, and Itamar Even-Zohar, it analyzes how Yiddish theatre negotiated its position between center and periphery by adapting, reinterpreting, or resisting dominant French theatrical conventions. Through a close reading of repertoire, performance practices, and linguistic registers, the study shows how diasporic Jewish culture mobilized strategies of cultural transfer to assert its distinctiveness while engaging with the aesthetics of the Parisian stage. Rather than simply mirroring a hegemonic model, Yiddish theatre in Paris emerges as a dynamic cultural form responsive to and defiant of its environment. This approach situates the analysis within broader questions of intercultural exchange and minoritarian aesthetics, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of how theatrical systems operate under transnational and intercultural influence, and offering insight into the cultural mobility of Jewish performance traditions.

Key-words: Yiddish theatre, synchronization, center-periphery, cultural transfer, diasporic culture

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• DOI: 10.59277/synthe.2025.4.161
• https://doi.org/10.59277/synthe.2025.4.161