Lets be honest, few people are actually able to provide interesting lectures on or about Wagner and his work. Most are far better read than seen. However, this is not always the case with Fredric Jameson. Professor Fredric Jameson
Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, Duke University
Allegory and Dramaturgy in Wagner’s Ring
Abstract:
Aside from its musical genius, Wagner’s Ring cycle remains one of the most staggering achievements of the 19th-century stage, and has continued to stimulate innovative dramaturgy amidst the present Wagner revival. This lecture will focus on two interrelated topics: the relationship between the figure of Wotan and political fields of force; and the role of Siegfried as a way into Wagnerian theatrical psychology—the composer/dramatist’s specific ‘system’ of thinking psychological motivation.
Biography:
Fredric R. Jameson is Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of the Institute for Critical Theory at Duke University. One of the leading cultural critics of our time, he is the author of Postmodernism, The Political Unconscious, The Modernist Papers, and Valences of the Dialectic, among others, and was the recipient of the Holberg Prize in 2008 and the MLA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
This lecture was introduced by Professor Julian Murphet from the Center for Modernism Studies in Australia, UNSW
