Based on an analysis of Christoph Martin Wielands political novel "Der Goldne Spiegel" (1772), his libretto "Die Wahl des Herkules" (1773), and his essays on music theatre (1773/1775) in the broader context of the German Enlightenment, this dissertation argues that late eighteenth-centurys anthropology, moral philosophy, political thought, and musical aesthetics subscribe to the ideal of a pastoral exercise of power. Discourses committed to this ideal hold that any exercise of power be it in the sphere of politics, education, and aesthetics, or with regard to the subjects comportment towards itself is legitimate only insofar as it realizes, or at least strives to realize, the Glückseligkeit of those submitted to it. Within the pastoral paradigm, melancholy, an enigmatic paralysis that threatens to cancel all striving for happiness, poses a latent threat to any exercise of power.<p>
Presenting the universal acknowledgment of the pastoral ideal as a necessary precondition for realizing the common good, Wielands works present the creation of a new order in which private and public happiness will be secured as the vocation of quasi-pastoral agents. Comprising characteristics of God, prince, father, educator, and author, these imaginary figures, and those who take them as their model, are driven by fantasies of power that cannot be lived. Bound to rigid regimes of self-control and constant control of others, they fall prey to, and cause in others, the very melancholy they set out to overcome.<p>
Their failure to live up to the pastoral ideal enables a new form of critique that draws upon literature, opera, and dreams, in order to foster conversations between those in power and those who are powerless, about the causes of melancholic suffering. These conversations are crucial for the ongoing process of establishing a new social and political order in which such suffering will be overcome. Music and literature partake in this project. While literary authorship provides a metaphor for melancholic sovereignty, music subverts any notion of what may be considered a legitimate exercise of power. As an ambivalent cultural practice, it has a critical function in its own right.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-12012011-165011 |
| Date | 09 December 2011 |
| Creators | Frömming, Gesa |
| Contributors | James McFarland, Gregg Horowitz, Meike Werner, Barbara Hahn |
| 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-12012011-165011/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, 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. |
Page generated in 0.01 seconds