Millennial Budapest and Ragtime

In my discussion I address some of the internal contradictions in the ragtime culture of Millennial Budapest, relying on specific aspects of gender studies, body studies, jazz studies, and cultural studies. First I look at Budapest as the heart of the national body, then I explore the construction of two types of masculine bodies, typical of the era. I also explore the orpheum as a distinctive modern space inflected by ragtime and ragtime-related culture, and focus on the eroticized and racialized bodies of women performers. After elaborating on the racialized aspect of the Hungarian cakewalk craze popularized by orpheums and musical theaters, I deal with the power dynamics of Millennial Budapest's carnivalesque multitudes that posited the racialized and gendered other only to reinscribe the same within the boundaries of a fledgling nation with imperial aspirations.