a MASTERARBEIT / MASTER’S THESIS Titel der Masterarbeit / Title of the Master‘s Thesis „Fake, Fashion or the Reinvention of Tradition: Dirndl in Salzburg“ verfasst von / submitted by Marlene Gruber angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (MA) Wien, 2016 / Vienna 2016 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / A 066 656 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / CREOLE-Cultural Differences degree programme as it appears on and Transnational Processes the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ayşe Çağlar Thanks to my supervisor Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ayse Çağlar for the guidance and insightful comments during the course of this thesis the interview partners Maria Aberer, Haimo Falkensteiner, Lorenz Forstenlechner, Hans Köhl, Marianne Meislinger and Katharina Rausch and all research participants involved in this study for their sincerity and willingness to support this paper my family for their unfailing support, patience and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study Table of contents INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 9 1 THE DIRNDL IN TIMES PAST .......................................................................................... 15 2 THE MYTH OF AUSTRIANESS ........................................................................................ 21 3 FROM TRADITION TO TASTE IN THEORY ...................................................................... 26 3.1 Tracing traditions ........................................................................................ 26 Tradition meets modernity ................................................................................... 27 Tradition bounded by essence .............................................................................. 28 Tradition reinvented .............................................................................................. 29 3.2 Placing objects ............................................................................................ 32 The relation between it and us ............................................................................. 32 Dressed in ethnicity ............................................................................................... 34 The consumption of goods .................................................................................... 35 The commodification of goods and the circulation of commodities .................... 38 3.3 Commodities in the realm of fashion ......................................................... 40 Fashion as nonverbal language ............................................................................. 40 Simmel’s theory of fashion .................................................................................... 42 The conspicuousness of dress ............................................................................... 43 Habitus, Taste and Distinction .............................................................................. 44 The realm of fashion ............................................................................................. 47 3.4 Advertising as a world-to-good meaning transfer ...................................... 48 4 REINVENTING THE TRADITION ..................................................................................... 51 4.1 Existing body of literature ........................................................................... 51 4.2 Tradition just now ....................................................................................... 54 Reconsidering the approach to the invention of tradition ................................... 54 From reinvented traditions to reinventing tradition ............................................ 55 Questioning the reinventing of tradition .............................................................. 56 Purpose of studying “the” tradition ...................................................................... 58 5 RESEARCHING THE WORLD OF DIRNDL ........................................................................ 61 5.1 Dirndl’s tradition: the object is the starting point ...................................... 61 5.2 The dirndl – a cultural costume .................................................................. 63 5.3 Escaping methodological nationalism ........................................................ 65 5.4 Doing ethnography ..................................................................................... 67 Applied methods ................................................................................................... 68 5.5 Positionality ................................................................................................ 72 Doing anthropology in familiar places .................................................................. 73 5.6 The links between macro and micro – the extended case method ........... 79 6 SITES OF RESEARCH ...................................................................................................... 81 7 GIRLS’ NIGHT OUT ........................................................................................................ 85 8 FESTIVITIES IN THE NAME OF TRADITION .................................................................... 90 9 PROMOTING POPULAR TRADITION: ANDREAS GABALIER ........................................... 99 10 DRESSING BODIES, CREATING WOMEN ..................................................................... 105 11 INSTITUTIONALIZED TRADITION AT THE HEIMATWERK ............................................ 108 12 TRADITION’S BIG INDUSTRY ....................................................................................... 115 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................... 121 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 128 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... 143 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG ............................................................................................................ 144 Table of Figures Figure 1 – Press photo of Andreas Gabalier; Photo: Michael Mey/Koch Universal Music .... 100 Figure 2 – A model presents a regional dress at the Landestrachtenschau 2014 at the Salzburg Convention Center; Photo: Franz Neumayr ...................................................... 112 Figure 3 – Presentation of a black bridal dress created by the Heimatwerk Salzburg at the Landestrachtenschau 2014; Photo: Franz Neumayr ....................................................... 112 Figure 4 – A model walks the runway at the Landestrachtenschau 2014 at the Salzburg Convention Center; Photo: Franz Neumayr .................................................................... 112 Figure 5 – Krüger Dirndl GmbH is one of the market leaders in Germany; Photo: Krüger Dirndl GmbH ............................................................................................................................... 119 Figure 6 – Promotional photograph of the “Krüger Feelings” collection, Fall/Winter 2016; Photo: Krüger Dirndl GmbH ............................................................................................. 119 Figure 7 – Promotional photograph of the “Krüger Madl & Buam” collection, Spring/Summer 2016; Photo: Krüger Dirndl GmbH ................................................................................... 119 Introduction Recently, a renaissance of the dirndl, traditional costumes and fashion in a country style is emergent in Austria. It is a renaissance which is strongly linked to events and parties. New events with a strong connection to tradition and traditional dresses are created, such as the Wiener Wiesn, and already existing events are given a fresh “traditional” shape. The formative element in all these occasions is the dress – blindingly obvious, nevertheless overlooked – a thing like many more which in many respects actually create us in the first place and make us the people we are (Miller 2010:53). “Culture comes above all from stuff,” Miller (2010:54) states. This holds true especially in the consumer societies of the Western countries, where we depend on goods in order to define ourselves, make choices and give meaning to our lives, as it is the objects which contain meaning in our material world (McCracken 2005:3–5). Thus, “the best way to understand, convey and appreciate our humanity is through attention to our fundamental materiality” (Miller 2010:4) – a field, social sciences and particularly anthropology have looked down upon as somehow trivial or missing the point (Miller 2010:4). But it is anthropology, which may have to offer new insights into the study of objects and commodities to its neighboring disciplines (Appadurai 1986:5). Hence, it is things themselves we have to follow, “for their meanings are inscribed in their forms, their uses, their trajectories” (Appadurai 1986:5). The main thing, literally speaking, of this study is the dirndl – Austria’s proclaimed traditional dress, in one of its many settings, the city of Salzburg, its surrounding areas and its – in an Appaduraian (2005) sense – landscapes. This is the place, where “the hills are alive,” as Julie