Wagner's Ring and German Drama: Comparative Studies in Mythology and History in Drama

by Mary A. Cicora

Overview

Wagner's Ring, an important phenomenon of the German drama tradition, is situated and examined alongside other major works of the canon. Wagner defines tragedy as a mythological drama. The theoretical foundation of the Ring is a complex dialectic of history and myth. By contrasting the Ring with the dramas of Schiller, Hebbel, Hofmannsthal, and Brecht different facets of Wagner's work are uniquely highlighted beyond theoretical generalizations or broad overviews. This series of comparisons offers fresh insight into the interrelationships of the Ring with the previous German drama tradition, and also investigates its influence on twentieth-century drama and opera.

Scholars of German literature and culture will appreciate this innovative interpretation and study of the Ring. New ideas proposed include the suggestions that Schiller's Wallenstein trilogy might have served as a covert source for the Ring and that Ariadne auf Naxos and Mahagonny represent parodies of the Ring. The theory underlying the Ring will attract musicologists and interdisciplinary literary scholars interested in the interrelationship between words and music and literature and opera.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313305290
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/30/1999
Series:	Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance , #52
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)
Lexile:	1290L (what's this?)

About the Author

MARY A. CICORA is author of Mythology as Metaphor: Romantic Irony, Critical Theory, and Wagner's RING (Greenwood, 1998). After attending Yale, she received her doctorate degree in German Literature from Cornell.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: On Finding Mythical-Historical Parallels Between Music-Drama, Spoken Drama, and Opera
Wagner and the Eighteenth Century: History and Myth, Tasso and Tannhäuser, Wotan and Wallenstein
The Nibelung Legend in the Nineteenth Century: Wagner and Hebbel
Brünnhilde on Naxos: A Study of the Wagnerian Influence on Hofmannsthal's Dramas and the Hofmannsthal-Strauss Dramas
Wagner and Brecht, or, Show Me the Way to Nibelheim, O Don't Ask Why, O Don't Ask Why
Conclusions: History or Myth?
Literature

Editorial Reviews

A study of Wagner's Ring within the context of the German drama tradition, offering a series of comparative studies treating dramas of Schiller, Hebbel, Hofmannsthal, and Brecht. The focal point of comparison is the notion of mythology or mythological drama. Several texts which can be classified as historical dramas are shown to be mythological or antimythological in other respects. An introduction offers a brief summary of the basic problematic of history and myth in the Ring. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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