Start Date
5-3-2024 12:30 PM
End Date
5-3-2024 1:45 PM
Disciplines
History
Subjects
Nationalism, Ring des Nibelungen (Richard Wagner), Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)
Abstract
In the 18th and 19th centuries in Germany, a new craze was emerging, one that would forever change Germany. The ideas of Nationalism, popularized by Johann Gottfried Herder, revolutionized the way that Germans thought about their country. Through this new kind of "Romantic" Nationalism, an importance was placed on "volksongs," or folksongs and stories as a means to take pride in one’s culture. The massively popular opera epic "The Ring of Nibelung" was written by Richard Wagner over fifty years after Herder's death, but it holds the values that Herder developed in it. In many ways, the Opera is the ultimate "volksong," and gives the Romantic Nationalism that Herder molded a new vehicle that inspires and awes to this day.
Keywords: Romantic nationalism, German nationalism, Johann Gottfried Herder, Richard Wagner, The Ring Cycle, 19th century Opera, The Ring of Nibelung, German Philosophy
Part of the Panel: Nationalism through the Arts
Moderator: Dr. Brenda Frink
Creative Commons License or Rights Statement
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
One Ring to Rule Them All: Connecting Johann Herder's Romantic Nationalism & Richard Wagner's "The Ring"
In the 18th and 19th centuries in Germany, a new craze was emerging, one that would forever change Germany. The ideas of Nationalism, popularized by Johann Gottfried Herder, revolutionized the way that Germans thought about their country. Through this new kind of "Romantic" Nationalism, an importance was placed on "volksongs," or folksongs and stories as a means to take pride in one’s culture. The massively popular opera epic "The Ring of Nibelung" was written by Richard Wagner over fifty years after Herder's death, but it holds the values that Herder developed in it. In many ways, the Opera is the ultimate "volksong," and gives the Romantic Nationalism that Herder molded a new vehicle that inspires and awes to this day.
Keywords: Romantic nationalism, German nationalism, Johann Gottfried Herder, Richard Wagner, The Ring Cycle, 19th century Opera, The Ring of Nibelung, German Philosophy
Part of the Panel: Nationalism through the Arts
Moderator: Dr. Brenda Frink