My project addresses the representation of dance, dance-like, and pedestrian movement within the urban space in German literature around 1900. The dynamic cosmopolitan centers of Berlin and Paris not only attracted authors and intellectuals like August Endell, Rainer Maria Rilke, Alfred Döblin, and Else Lasker-Schüler but also the pioneers of early modern dance such as Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis from America and the Ballets Russes from Russia. As a representative of a new generation, the diplomat Harry Graf Kessler detailed his keen observations of their live dance performances in his diaries. His aesthetic senses underwent a transformation by growing tired of the bourgeois balls and academic ballets of the 19th century and by developing a deep enthusiasm for the freer, modern dance.
Similarly Endell, Rilke, Döblin, and Lasker-Schüler grew aware of the changing aesthetics and began writing texts that resisted traditional genres by reflecting the fragmented perception of the modern individual living in the urban landscape. Instead of depicting dance in the traditional confines of a theater space, I argue that these authors experimented with new forms of representations of the expansive urban space by setting the dynamic modern body and its movement possibilities in large squares (Endell), streets (Rilke), hospitals (Döblin), and cafés (Lasker-Schüler). Their texts aim at both capturing the display of movement in a crisp, precise, picturesque language and attempt to recreate the feeling as if the dances take place in front of the readers eyes. The texts demand the reader to feel both a combination of kinesthetic empathy with as well as intellectual abstraction based on the protagonists or narrators depictions. My readings of these literary scenes are informed by theoretical texts by Andreas Huyssen, Gabriele Brandstetter, and Susan Leigh Foster.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03222012-204723 |
| Date | 28 March 2012 |
| Creators | Lim, Wesley Ben |
| Contributors | Meike G. Werner, James McFarland, Christoph Zeller, Helmut Walser Smith |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03222012-204723/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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