THE WAGNERIAN SUBLIME (FOUR LACANIAN READINGS OF CLASSIC OPERAS)

In four compelling essays on classic opera, Slavoj Zizek examines how certain structural motifs repeatedly dominate the narratives b y putting desire, as pure and captivating as possible, into music and on stage.Wagners heroes, for instance, suffer from unbearable longing (Parsifal), an excessive yearning for the absolute (The Flying Dutchman), a deadly surplus of pure love (Tristan and Isolde ).But why is desires satisfaction fenced-off through pain and failure? Why is the unification with the loved one indefinitely postp oned?While...[Read more]