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

(Hardback)

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Description

In this text, Wagner's "Ring", a 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 highlighted beyond theoretical generalizations or broad overviews. This series of comparisons offers insight into the interrelationships of the "Ring" with the previous German tradition, and also investigates its influence on 20th-century drama and opera. Ideas proposed in this study 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".

Reviews

"Having successfully deconstructed the Ring, Mary Cicora now turns her sharp and practiced eye to situating Wagner in the larger story of German drama, from Schiller to Brecht. The results are impressive."-Paul Robinson Professor of History, Stanford University Author, Opera and Ideas: From Mozart to Strauss
.,."this book represents a dedicated and thorough effort in research and scholarship."-The Opera Journal
...this book represents a dedicated and thorough effort in research and scholarship.-The Opera Journal
The author departs radically from the many studies on Wagner's influence on both music and literature, with her focus on myth versus history in German drama....Amply documented, this refreshing and provocative interdisciplinary study is recommended to literary critics, musicologists, and students of culture at all levels. A must for all libraries.-Choice
We can thank Mary Cicora for her insights into Wagner's refabrication of mythology and indebtedness to Romantic irony and for her thoughtful placement of Wagner in the center of a tradition stretching from Schiller to Brecht.-Opera Quarterly
..."this book represents a dedicated and thorough effort in research and scholarship."-The Opera Journal
"We can thank Mary Cicora for her insights into Wagner's refabrication of mythology and indebtedness to Romantic irony and for her thoughtful placement of Wagner in the center of a tradition stretching from Schiller to Brecht."-Opera Quarterly
"The author departs radically from the many studies on Wagner's influence on both music and literature, with her focus on myth versus history in German drama....Amply documented, this refreshing and provocative interdisciplinary study is recommended to literary critics, musicologists, and students of culture at all levels. A must for all libraries."-Choice

Author Bio

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.