The Total Work of Art - (Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association) (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- For two centuries, Gesamtkunstwerk--the ideal of the "total work of art"--has exerted a powerful influence over artistic discourse and practice, spurring new forms of collaboration and provoking debates over the political instrumentalization of art.
- About the Author: Margaret Eleanor Menninger is Associate Professor of History at Texas State University and Executive Director of the German Studies Association.
- 300 Pages
- Art, History
- Series Name: Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association
Description
Book Synopsis
For two centuries, Gesamtkunstwerk--the ideal of the "total work of art"--has exerted a powerful influence over artistic discourse and practice, spurring new forms of collaboration and provoking debates over the political instrumentalization of art. Despite its popular conflation with the work of Richard Wagner, Gesamtkunstwerk's lineage and legacies extend well beyond German Romanticism, as this wide-ranging collection demonstrates. In eleven compact chapters, scholars from a variety of disciplines trace the idea's evolution in German-speaking Europe, from its foundations in the early nineteenth century to its manifold articulations and reimaginings in the twentieth century and beyond, providing an uncommonly broad perspective on a distinctly modern cultural form.
Review Quotes
"Contributors are deft in negotiating and teasing out how aspects of the Gesamtkunstwerk shaped the German cultural landscape and at the same time mirrored the changing nature of politics and consumerism. This collection will prove to be an invaluable resource for historians interested in all aspects of German culture." - Choice
About the Author
Margaret Eleanor Menninger is Associate Professor of History at Texas State University and Executive Director of the German Studies Association. She has published on the history of cultural philanthropy in both the United States and Germany and was a contributor to The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia. Her forthcoming book is entitled A Serious Matter and True Joy: Philanthropy, the Arts, and the State in Nineteenth-Century Leipzig.
