Ethnic Drag

Ethnic Drag Synopsis

This is an exploration of the West German attempt to repress and refashion concepts of 'race' after the Holocaust. The Holocaust is considered a singularly atrocious event in human history, and many people have studied its causes. Yet few questions have been asked about the ways in which West Germans have 'forgotten', unlearned, or reconstructed the racial beliefs at the core of the Nazi state in order to build a democratic society.This study looks at ethnic drag (Ethnomaskerade) as one particular kind of performance that reveals how postwar Germans lived, disavowed, and contested 'Germanness' in its complex racial, national, and sexual dimensions. ""Ethnic Drag"" is an accessible and sophisticated, critical and entertaining book that examines the phenomenon of cultural masquerade in order to examine racial feeling, thought, and behavior in postwar German culture. Contributing to considerations of drag in postcolonial, feminist, and queer scholarships, this book will be of interest to people in German studies, theater performance, ethnic studies, and women's/queer studies.