F1113 Greek Heritage and Modern Culture. R. Wagner and F. Nietzsche on the Birth and Rebirth of Tragedy

In the second half of the nineteenth century the writer-composer, Richard Wagner (1813-1883), and the philologist-turned-philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) formed an intellectual alliance centered around the critique of modern culture and the recourse to Europe\'s cultural heritage in classical Greece. At the center of this modernist self-critique stood an assessment of Greek tragedy that left behind the classicist framework of earlier movements of cultural renaissance and stressed the broader cultural framework of Greek tragic art in a tragic view of life. The course will pursue the attempts made by Wagner and Nietzsche to retrieve the tragic cultural heritage for specifically modern art and philosophy. In addition, the course will address the growing disagreement between Wagner and Nietzsche about the diagnosis and the therapy of the ailments of modern culture.\r\n

The course begins with an orientation about the long-term European dispute between the proponents of the inherent cultural and artistic superiority of Greek and Roman antiquity (\"the ancients\") and defenders of further progress achieved in those areas in more recent times (\"the moderns\") to set the stage for Wagner\'s and Nietzsche\'s complex appropriation of ancient art for modern ends. The focus then turns to the theory and practice of Greek tragedy, which will be examined through Aristotle\'s tract on the workings of dramatic art, the Poetics (ca. 335 BCE), and Aeschylus\' play from the Theban cycle on the tragic fall of king Oedipus, Oedipus the King (476 BCE).

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The course then moves to the theory and practice of modern drama in the works of Richard Wagner. The course will examine in detail Wagner\'s chief work in the theory of drama, Opera and Drama (1852), starting with Wagner\'s devastating critique of modern opera, moving on to his account of Greek drama, his assessment of the relation between art and politics in ancient and modern times and his aesthetic and political program of a \"drama of the future\" inspired by the civic character of Greek drama. The course will then confront Wagner\'s aesthetics and poetics of ancient and modern drama with the text and the music of his opera cycle, The Ring of the Nibelung (1876), centered around the failed social production of the modern, free individual. The course will examine closely the textbooks, authored by Wagner himself, of the four music dramas constituting the cycle, viz., Rhinegold, The Walkyrie, Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods. The comparison of Wagner\'s operatic-dramatic theory and practice will be supplemented with the screening of select scenes from the Ring.

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Finally, the course will address the critical contribution made by Friedrich Nietzsche to Wagner\'s project of the rebirth of Greek tragedy as modern music drama in his early defense of Wagner in The Birth of Tragedy (1872) and in his later attack on Wagner\'s music in The Case Wagner (1888). The focus here will be on the parallels drawn by Nietzsche in both works between ancient Greek drama and modern music drama and on the anti-Wagnerian aesthetics and politics of the later Nietzsche.

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Learning Outcomes

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On a formal level, students will acquire and practice the ability to read closely, summarize clearly, analyze thoroughly, assess critically and discuss productively intellectually challenging philosophical and literary texts, both ancient and modern. In terms of content, students will be familiarized with major positions in Western philosophical thought about the nature, origin, essence and function of dramatic art. As a result, students will be enabled to participate actively in and relate critically to current public and private debates and controversies about the relation of art and society.

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Teaching and Evaluation Methods

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Classes will be held as discussion classes, based on every student\'s prior close study of the assigned text, an introduction into the author and his work given by the instructor at the beginning of each week and a student presentation on the assigned text at the beginning of each class period.

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The final grade is assigned on the basis of class participation, a class presentation on the assigned text of a given class meeting and a final paper of 5-7 pages in length (spacing 1.5; font Times New Roman) on a topic suggested by the student and approved by the instructor, to be turned in by email.

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