Wagner and the Fate of the Earth: A Contemporary Reading of The Ring

[UndertheOcean]

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Here a question arises: Does any past dramatic work portray our present terminal phase in its larger dimensions? Has any drama dealt with the destructive elements of our age, as represented by what Berry calls "the industrial-commercial plundering process," while at the same time offering a vision of healing and wholeness? I suggest that Richard Wagner's tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen is such a drama, the largest work--at least in terms of length--in the history of Western music. The Ring, of course, draws upon mythic sources (specifically, upon Teutonic mythology), and because myth traditionally treats a totality--subhuman as well as superhuman worlds--The Ring fulfills one of Berry's criteria for "new" drama: its conflicts are not located merely in the sphere of human individuals.

Being a mythic work has other consequences: since its creation and first performance in the second half of the last century, The Ring has given rise to a multitude of interpretations, the scale ranging from Marxist to Jungian. This reaction was predictable, for myth--from early on in the Western tradition--has been subjected to explanation or "rationalization"; myth has, in other words, been read as allegory (the most famous example: the Old Testament was interpreted as a figurative anticipation of the New according to St. Augustine's formula, "In the Old Testament the New Testament is concealed; in the New Testament the Old Testament is revealed").


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A fundamental choice is made here that determines the subsequent action. In an entirely different context, contemporary psychoanalyst Arno Gruen sums up the situation succinctly: "Human development may follow one of two paths: that of love or that of power. The way of power, which is central in most cultures, leads to a self that mirrors the ideology of domination."3 It is this "ideology of domination" that fuels the tragedy of Der Ring des Nibelungen. But domination over what? First of all, over Nature. Here Wagner's drama mirrors the drama of our age as Berry describes it, while at the same time departing radically from classical-traditional precedent and telling a "new story."

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In the foregoing I have argued for a contemporary allegorical reading of The Ring; now it is time for a brief recapitulation and amplification of that argument. A pure natural substance is wrested from the depths and, misused, becomes the object of a disastrous power struggle, one that destroys not only human beings but Nature as well (cf. the fire and flood at the end of Die GštterdŠmmerung). To begin with this ending: what struck Shaw as "irrelevant"--the female protagonist's return of the substance in question to its natural setting--strikes us now as an anticipation of today's movement toward "ecological restoration," the desire to make amends to a violated natural order.5 It is in this direction--and in this direction only--that many believe humankind's "redemption" lies, and it is this which gives meaning in contemporary terms to BrŸnnhilde's "redemptive" act. (Out of the multitude of musical motifs that make up The Ring's score, two are dominant at its close: one is the motif of the Rhinemaidens; the other, generally designated "Redemption through Love," sounds--high in the first violins--over a final restatement of the Valhalla motif. Thus, in his conclusion the composer gives special emphasis once again to Nature and the Feminine vis-ˆ-vis the power of the patriarchy.)

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Whole Article ==>

http://neweconomicsinstitute.org/publications/essays/hanuum/hunter/wagner-and-the-fate-of-the-earth

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Jean Shinoda Bolen, a Jungian psychologist, had a lot to say

on the Nibelungen theme in her Ring of Power, which is a sort of Jungian analysis of the Wagnerian version of the myth.

I sometimes think Mark Twain was more accurate than he realized when he famously said of Wagner's music, "You know, that stuff's better than it sounds."

[Larkspur]

2. I love Jean Shinoda Bolen's books

and yes, her interpretation of Wagner's The Ring is based upon Jungian psychology. In her forward, she says that she was reluctant to first attend a rare public performance of The Ring, but she got into the story and the metaphors quickly.

[UndertheOcean]

3. Thanks ! I will put her book on my reading list

[nightrain]

4. knr. Thank you! The article and comments stimulated me to get Shinoda Bolen's

book off the shelf and to read it and to watch the Ring cycle starting this weekend, for the next several weeks.... I just never have gotten to it!