Faust “Feminized”: Reconceptualizing the Role of Marguerite in Romantic Music

Natalie Oswald, Oberlin College

Location

Science Center, A254

Document Type

Presentation

Start Date

4-24-2015 2:45 PM

End Date

4-24-2015 3:45 PM

Abstract

This research examines the role of Marguerite in musical representations of Goethe’s Faust and the way various composers sought to portray her character to a Romantic audience. I use the memoirs of these composers, original scores, and feminist analyses of musicology to explore how hegemonic attitudes have influenced Marguerite’s portrayal as a femme fragile. How do these musical representations of Marguerite conform to or divert from a feminist musicological perspective? I offer a new approach to conceptualizing Marguerite as a woman subject to patriarchal structures, as well as a potential reinterpretation of her character consistent with a feminist perspective.

Notes

Session 2, Panel 10 - The Poetics of the Lives of Others
Moderator: Tom Newlin, Chair and Associate Professor of Russian Language, Literature, and Culture

Major

French; Musical Studies

Advisor(s)

Grace An, French
Charles McGuire, Musicology

Project Mentor(s)

Charles McGuire, Musicology

April 2015

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 
Apr 24th, 2:45 PM Apr 24th, 3:45 PM

Faust “Feminized”: Reconceptualizing the Role of Marguerite in Romantic Music

Science Center, A254

This research examines the role of Marguerite in musical representations of Goethe’s Faust and the way various composers sought to portray her character to a Romantic audience. I use the memoirs of these composers, original scores, and feminist analyses of musicology to explore how hegemonic attitudes have influenced Marguerite’s portrayal as a femme fragile. How do these musical representations of Marguerite conform to or divert from a feminist musicological perspective? I offer a new approach to conceptualizing Marguerite as a woman subject to patriarchal structures, as well as a potential reinterpretation of her character consistent with a feminist perspective.