"Ich bin kein Vieh, ich kann nicht vergessen!"

Description

The musical analysis of two places where Strauss cut the textual references to forgetting reveals that the waltz motif associated with Chrysothemis' character functions as an expression of forgetting. Another expression of forgetting can be found in Strauss' employment of key signatures: by not assigning any clearly discernible keys to Elektra and Klytamnestra, the composer expresses their loss of self, and thus their respective ways of forgetting.This dissertation examines discourses of forgetting at the fin de siecle in Hugo von Hofmannsthal's play Elektra (1903) and Richard Strauss' operatic adaptation of the play (1909). While an interest for and a certain fascination with the activities of forgetting and remembering, and the changing attitudes toward them, can be traced back to Homer, forgetting gained new importance at a time that experienced profound cultural, social, political, and artistic changes. The cultural history of forgetting and remembering outlined in the first part serves to situate Hofmannsthal in the intellectual and literary tradition that he was so well-versed in.The dichotomy between forgetting and remembering---personified by Chrysothemis and Elektra respectively---was a topic that was at the core of Hofmannsthal's oeuvre. While Strauss had transported the discussion of this dichotomy into the music, Gotz Friedrich put it back into foreground in his 1981 film version of the opera. Combining Hofmannsthal's interest in the philosophy of life with Strauss' musical sensibilities, Friedrich created a new and very modern way to express the issue of forgetting and remembering artistically, which were so important in Hofmannsthal's writings.The dissertation shows that Elektra is about forgetting. Hofmannsthal developed his own discourse of forgetting based on Friedrich Nietzsche's essay "Vom Nutzen and Nachtheil der Historie fur das Leben" (1873). There are three different modes, in which forgetting is thematized: (1) language, (2) the extensive use of animal imagery, and (3) Elektra's death dance as choreography of her own ars oblivionalis. The image of the animal serves as the main carrier of forgetting, and for the description of certain characters' animalistic demeanour and behaviour, Hofmannsthal relied heavily on Brehms Tierleben, a multi-volume animal encyclopaedia he owned.

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