Time Stands Still
(Asynchronous Session - Online)
Dramatic Envelopes as a New Explanation for Beethoven’s Abstract Instrumental Music View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stephen Husarik
Beethoven’s works have generated streams of criticism over two centuries simply because his music resists easy description with established musical terms. This is especially true among his most celebrated and enigmatic compositions such as the Piano Sonata, Opus 111, the Grosse Fuge, Opus 133 or the Piano Variations, WoO 80. The failure of conventional terminology such as sonata form, theme, and variations, etc. to describe these compound musical structures acceptably over the centuries suggests a need for new technical terminology in their analysis. An enthusiastic visitor to stage productions in Vienna, Beethoven was well aware of dramatic and literary styles, types, and genres of his era. It therefore comes as no surprise to those who understand both music and theater that his abstract instrumental compositions abound with overall plans that coincide with the forms of drama. In fact, dramaturgy offers some far more manageable terms to describe Beethoven’s music than those currently in use by music theory. Especially notable are the identifiable dramatic envelopes of works such as the 32 Variations in C minor, WoO 80—an epic drama, or the Piano Sonata, Opus 111—a resurrection drama, or the Grosse Fuge, Opus 133—a comedy. Using both literary and musical nomenclature, this study shows how the overall musical plan and internal structure of three celebrated Beethoven works supports the idea that terms from one field of humanities are able to cross-pollinate those of another in order to advance its state of research.
“While the Air Slowly Filled with Darkness”: Literary Written, Death, and Survival in the Novel Fame View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Carla Luciane Klos Schöninger
This study analyses the chapter “Replying to the Abbess”, from the novel Fame: a Novel in Nine Episodes, by Daniel Kehlmann. Miguel Auristos Blancos is a character/writer renowned for his works, in which the main approach is about spirituality. Every day he replies to letters from his readers, who expect to receive tips, suggestions, and advice. He spent almost all day answering the abbess, while the sun shone and while the air slowly filled with darkness. Blancos feels disturbed with the reply, because it makes him reflect on his literary texts and beliefs. His thoughts lead him to consider suicide as a solution for his inner conflicts. This bibliographic research considers other writers, who reflect about death over their texts, as Michel de Montaigne, or those before the unhappiness, anguish, and melancholy decide to anticipate the death, as Stefan Zweig and Virginia Woolf might inspire the construction of this fictional writer. On the other hand, the philologist Ottmar Ette emphasizes some writers that used the writing while facing the death, but pursuing survival, like Werner Krauss and Hannah Arendt. In both situations: pursuit for survival or surrender to death; fear, anguish, and suffering devastate, and in both circumstances, the idealized end is the purest freedom, and the written literature is a way to assure the survival.
Nonlinear Temporality of Phantasmal Noh View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yukihide Endo
Noh theatre consists of two types of plays: (1) present-time noh that presents a relatively realistic portrayal of living persons, and (2) phantasmal noh that depicts ghosts and other supernatural beings who interact with Buddhist monks and seek salvation. In phantasmal noh plays, female ghosts dramatically –somewhat obsessively– narrate their sweet and bitter past love affairs. Likewise, ghosts of warriors recount their regrettable incidents on the battlefield. Notably, the past outshines the present. Usually, this characteristic of phantasmal noh is examined from purely literary and aesthetic perspectives. Such a research tendency, however, creates a blind spot in comprehending phantasmal noh, which features fluid temporality or non-chronological time concepts. Given this weakness, it is worth considering a linguistic approach to such irregular narrative temporality, such as that explored by German Germanist-linguist Harald Weinrich, who developed a grammatical tense theory. Among other ideas, Weinrich’s hypothesis brings to the fore the narratologically creative and effective role of the past tense in that this particular tense powerfully foregrounds the kernel of each theme within a narrative. Despite the difference between the past tense and the noh characters’ recollection of their past experiences, Weinrich’s theory provides insight into noh’s narrative interaction between the past (represented by the ghost) and present (the traveling monk). My central focus lies on the two phantasmal noh plays, Izutsu [The Well-Cradle] and Matsukaze [Pining Wind], in which female ghosts remember their past love affairs and indulge in romantic, even amorous, nostalgia.
What is Writing?: The Humanities on Trial View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Paul Sherban
Eric Hayot notes that enrollment for Humanities majors has steadily declined since the 1990s, and that this depletion of college freshman from humanities to other majors has caused an apocalyptic discourse about the state of the academy. In response to Hayot’s call for humanists to justify their work, this paper affirms the value of writing by examining what college freshman appreciate about their writing courses. The piece asks “what is writing?” (ie. writing as object), and “how does writing operate?” (ie. writing as action). Facilitating a discussion within the field of composition and rhetoric, this paper engages writing by James Paul Gee, Joseph Harris, Barry Kroll, Nancy Sommers and Laura Saltz. In so doing, I articulate how writing gives students the tools with which they can begin to contend with eternal questions that bring meaning to their temporary labors in college. In addition, this paper affirms the value of the critic and of theoretical inquiry. I trace contemporary opinions on the role of the critic, including Helen Sword’s claim that publishable academic prose employ “unreadable” jargon, and Gayatri Spivak’s view that theoretical products contain practical elements. Considering the role of (a) writing, (b) the critic, and (c) theoretical texts, this paper seeks to express the practical value of a college major that receives ridicule for being impractical: namely, a major in the humanities.
