The Wagnerian mythos : national origin and musical culture

In the mid-nineteenth century Richard Wagner participated in a project of German identity building through his operas based on Germanic sagas. Even in his less-mythic dramas, such as Tannhauser, Wagner brings together disparate mythologies, histories, and/or legends to celebrate a narrative of shared "Germanness". In these works, Wagner works to establish the continuum which Benedict Anderson identifies as crucial to formations of national consciousness. His use of the medieval German literary canon as well as various Norse sagas as source materials establishes the German "antiquity", and his narratives provide his opinion on--and thus assume the existence of--the present and potential future for Germans. I argue that through this lens it is possible to track a consistent image of "Germanness" in several of Wagner's most important works. Exclusion also played a major role for Wagner, however, as his operas frequently warn against the dangers of "foreign influence." As evident in his polemic writings, Wagner sought to create a definition of "Germanness" which excluded various groups, primarily German Jews. This exclusion also served to solidify Wagner's self-styled place at the top of the German musical canon. This study seeks to identify Wagner's nationalistic project in several of his earlier works as well as his chef-d'oeuvre Ring des Nibelungen and trace how he and the Wagnerians sought to maintain his vision of "Germanness" into the 20th century.