“He Couldn’t Tell the Difference between The Merry Widow and Tristan and Isolde”: Kafka’s Anti-Wagnerian Philosophy of Music
“He Couldn’t Tell the Difference between The Merry Widow and Tristan and Isolde”: Kafka’s Anti-Wagnerian Philosophy of Music
Author(s): Ido LewitSubject(s): Music, Aesthetics, Comparative Study of Literature, Czech Literature, Theory of Literature, History of Art
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Richard Wagner; Franz Kafka; Philosophy of Music; Transcendence; Acousmatic Sound; Silence;
Summary/Abstract: This essay exposes an anti-Wagnerian philosophy of music in Franz Kafka’s “Researches of a Dog” and “The Silence of the Sirens.” Themes of music, sound, and silence are overwhelmingly powerful in these stories and cannot be divorced from corporeal and visual aspects. These aspects are articulated in the selected texts in a manner that stands in stark opposition to Richard Wagner’s philosophy of music as presented in the composer’s seminal 1870 “Beethoven” essay.
Journal: Estetyka i Krytyka
- Issue Year: 53/2019
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 109-123
- Page Count: 16
- Language: English