The Wagnerian Impulses in James Joyce's
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THE WAGNFRIAN IMPULSFS IN JAMFS JOYCE'S UL YSSFS AND A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN h" l~miA AIAv~nriAr 1\11/"'r-rAnnr - J --·. ··- • ,,_,"_' ·--· ···--· -~-~ SubmittedUniversity in fulfilment ofof the Cape requirements Town for U1e degree of Master oi Arts in u-,e Faculty of Arts, University of Cape Town. Supervisors: Professor A. Brink; Professor j_ Cartwright Co-suoervisor:- . ProfessorS. Reiner Date submitted: 22 September 1999 The financial assistance of the Centre for Science Development, (HSRC, South Africa) towards tfiis research is f;ereby acknowiedged. Opinior;s expressed and conciusior;s arrived at, are ifiose of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the Centre for Science Development. The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town CONTENTS Acknowledgements 4 Abstract 5 introduction 7 A Note on Translation 13 Chapter 1: HEROES OF THE WAGNER DRAMA 14 -17 I I The wish to be her knight 20 The end he was bom to serve 23 Tourments of tosend years 26 Mild Aunt Lisa "My favourite Wagner opera" ~1 Guttergioomering 33 Priest of the eternal imagination 36 The musics of the futures 38 Chapter II: WAGNER'S RECEPTION IN ENGLAND AND IN IRELAND 45 46 Wagner in Irish Culture & Politics 49 1"&..--~-~ Ill. nnD'T"DI\I'T"~ nr 'T"Ur:' 1\D'T"I~T~ 1\~ Vnlll\1,... 1\llr::'l\1 uiiGtJI.It:l 111. rvn.1 ~I I ..;;J Vr In~;; 1"\n. II~ I~ 1"\~ I VUI'I~ IVIt;;;l'l 56 The Artist as Wanderer: the Flying Dutchman & Stephen Dedalus 58 The Artist as Debauchee: Tannhauser & Stephen Dedalus The Artist as Visionary: Lohengrin & Stephen Dedalus 68 2 The Artist as Superman: Siegfried & Stephen Dedalus 74 The Messiah as Artist: Parsifal & Stephen Dedalus 131 Chapter IV: "A SWORD MY FATHER DID PLEDGE ME" 145 The vVanderer as Artist: The Fiying Dutchrnan & Leopoid Bioorn "'"'"'1"+0 The Sorrowful God: Wotan & Leopold Bloom 153 Apostoiic Succession: Hans Sachs, Amfortas & Leopoid Bioom "169 ChapterV: WOMEN & WATER i76 "Senta-menta!ity": Senta & Gerty MacDowe!! 176 Tannhauser, Sex & Decadence 183 The 1\lll"''thcr_r-l"''rlrlcC!C!" l=rrl~ R. 1\11~" r-1"'11 llrlinn 1QA I I 1'-' IVI'-JLI 1'-'1 '-"'-''-"""""'to..1'1t.J. L._l '"""""' """"' IYI'-Ay '-"'-''-"1'-"11 I~ ..... -. "Tristanism" 199 '">na L..VV Distrusting Aquacities 213 Conclusion 229 Appendix: Wagner in Finnegans Wake 234 Bibliooraohv 245 ~ --- --- ...,- --.-- -., 3 Acknowledgements In addition to the generous financial assistance of both the Centre for Scientific Development and the University Research Council, without which this research would not have been possible, I would like to thank my supervisors, Profs. Andre Brink and John Cartwright, and my co-supervisor, Prof. Stuart Reiner of the South African College of Music. Prof. Brink kindly agreed to supervise -the much-needed revisions that were required in order for the dissertation to be presented in a more $treamlined and cohesive -format. -Quite - apart from his invariably sound suggestions, I must express my indebtedness to his unsolicited helpfulness in tracing additional sources and his obvious enthusiasm for the project, a factor which greatly stimulated, my efforts. ~rof. Cartwright, with whom I worked during the earlier stages of development, offered invaluable guidance and advice during the long process of shaping a dauntingly large and diffuse array of material. His patience in dealing with what must have seemed sometimes a disorganised enterprise is warmly appreciated. I also owe a particular debt of gratitude to Prof. Reiner who supervised the musical aspects of this largely _inter-disciplinary study and whose kindness and enthusiasm were keenly felt. 4 Abstract The Introduction isolates the particular focus of the dissertation - viz. the importance of the Wagnerian themes and allusions in James Joyce's Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, considering existing studies of the same subjec't, as well as elucidating the structure and argument of the dissertation as a whole. Chapter I presents an overview of Wagner's creative career and discusses the major themes and characters of his operas and the connections between them, as well as the all important philosophical ideas they are designed to represent. In addition, it singles out those features which are thought to have particular importance for Joyce, with indications of how these issues will be explored further in the following chapters. Chapter II deals with the process by which Joyce came to know Wagner's work. It briefly considers the earliest cultural and literary responses to Wagner's operas, both on the European continent and in Britain, before moving to Ireland in particular. It also deals with the importance of Wagnerism in shaping tne cultural climate of late nineteenth anc;J early twentieth century Europe. Finally, it examines Joyce's actual exposure to the operas and his changing attitudes to them. In Chapters 111-V, the argument focuses on particular themes and characters in the operas that aRpear to influence Joyce, whether in terms of direct reference or oblique allusion. The focus of each of these three chapters is, respectively, the artist-hero, the father-son relationship and the symbolic role of woman. Chapter Ill considers the Wagnerian artist-hero in his various guises as the Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Siegfried, Walther von Stolzing and Parsifal and the influence each of these can be said to have had on the creation of Stephen Dedalus, both in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and in Ulysses. 5 Chapter IV examines the relationship between this artist-hero and various father figures. Its focus is thus the particular relationship between Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom in Ulysses, especially its symbolic dimension, and the ways in which this is informed by similar relationships in Wagner's works: Siegfried, Siegmund and Wotan, Siegfried and Mime, Walther and Hans Sachs, Parsifal and Amfortas. It also notes the significance of certain Wagnerian characters (like the Dutchman and Wotan) being associated with both Stephen and Bloom. I ! The next chapter expands and elaborates this network of relationships still further, by turning to the various: female figures in the works of both artists. Thus Gerty MacDowell and Molly Bloom are: considered from the standpoint of Wagner's heroines, Stephen's . ' problematic relations~ip with his mother is compared with those of Siegfried and Parsifal and both Wagner's ~nd Joyce's interest in the erotic is considered. In addition, the importance both artists place on the symbolic affinity between women and water is analysed and compared. I i The Conclusion sums up the findings and reconsiders the chief points of concurrence and divergence between the creative output of these two supremely important artists. Finally, there is a short appendix, aimed at indicating the ways Joyce continues to develop many of the same Wagnerian themes with still greater complexity in Finnegans Wake. 6 Introduction When Stephen Dedalus utters his mock-heroic cry of "Nothung" at the moment of supreme crisis in Ulysses, he (and Joyce through him) is obviously making a direct and intentional reference to Siegfried's unbreakable sword in the Ring cycle. For this reason, the allusion is given considerable attention in the more detailed critical discussions of the subject (listed below). However, it is the contention of the present study that none of these texts, not even Timothy Martin's full-length Joyce and Wagner (1991 ), has considered all the ramifications of this extraordinarily dense quotation. For the fact is that this single word crystallises an exceptionally detailed web of thematic correspondences that connect both Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with the Ring cycle (and, through it, with most of the other Wagner operas as well). This dissertation is primarily concerned with the Wagnerian themes employed in the two abovementioned novels. It does not discuss any of the allusions to Wagner t~at have been discovered in Chamber Music, Dubliners or Exiles, nor is it concerned with Joyce's ,, references to the composer and his works in his letters or critical writings, except to demonstrate his knowledge of and interest in these works. It also does not attempt to consider the vast web of allusions in Finnegans Wake, since this is so diffuse as to demand a full-length study in itself. 1 In addition, this study does not attempt to treat the subjects - of leitmotif, uninterrupted melody, interior monologue and stream-of consciousness, in other words the formal and structural debt that Joyce is considered to owe largely to Wagner. The reason it was decided to avoid this well-known and certainly very elaborate subject is that it has already been sufficiently covered by existing resear~h, whereas it was thought a greater unity could be imparted to the present study by limiting it to the thematic allusions that are its chief focus. However, since this is also a subject t_hat previous researchers have dealt with extensively, an attempt has been made to acknowledge where my findings coincide with theirs and in some instances to question and/or re-evaluate their findings. 7 The particular contribution this dissertation aims at is twofold: the discussion of what appear to be complex and far-reaching allusions to Wagner which, to the best my knowledge, are not noted in previous studies (such as the relationship between the "morning inspiration" of Stephen Dedalus and Walther's "Prize-Song" in Die Meistersinger); and the reconsideration of others which are.