Richard Wagner, Fritz Lang, and the Nibelungen: The Dramaturgy of Disavowal

(Paperback)

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Explores the relationship between aesthetics and anti-Semitism in two controversial landmarks in German culture. This book argues that Richard Wagner's opera cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen" and Fritz Lang's 1920s film "Die Nibelungen" exploits contrasts between good and bad aesthetics to address the question of what is German and what is not.

Reviews

"This is a smart and thoroughly absorbing book. Its focus is not on a single genre but on the uses that have been made of the Nibelung legend to help shape German national and cultural identity... A subtly argued study of how the works under consideration 'render their politics in an aesthetic register.'"--Herbert Lindenberger, Quarterly Journal of the Modern Language Association "[David J. Levin] deftly executes his readings of Wagner and Lang, and the book's keen, unencumbered prose and practicable assessments ... perhaps a partial dividend of its author's work as Dramaturg at the Frankfurt Opera ... encourages the broad readership of this study."--Kelly Barry, Modern Language Notes "Richard Wagner, Fritz Lang, and the Nibelungen engages in close textual readings in order to shed light on much larger cultural issues and fault lines... This brief summary can barely do justice to the richness and originality of Levin's many brilliant interpretive moves."--Lutz Koepnick, Modernism/Modernity

Author Bio

David J. Levin is Associate Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature at the University of Chicago. He is the editor of Opera Through Other Eyes. In addition to his academic work, he has served as a dramaturg at the Frankfurt Opera, the Bremen Opera, and the Frankfurt Ballet.