FRS 002I — Sec. 1 — (2 units) — CRN 53088 — M 7:10-9:00 pm — 25 Wellman Hall
The ‘Other’ Lords of the Ring

Instructor: John Fetzer, Department of German, College of Letters and Science

Description: This seminar will build upon the current interest in the epic (and now the film version of Part I of a planned trilogy) of J.R.R. Tolkien’s original three-volume text of 1954-1955. The “other” (and older) Lords of the Ring, however, appeared almost a century earlier, in Richard Wagner’s tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung (1869-1876), a music drama of monumental proportions. The ring, and its accompanying curse, passes from Alberich, the dwarf, who steals the gold from the Rheinmaidens, to the giants, Fasolt and Fafner, who are duped to part with this treasure by Woten, the ruling potentate of the gods. The ring then goes to his human offspring, Siegfried, the tragic hero of the cycle, who gives it as a token of love to the Valkyrie, Brünhilde, and finally by stealth, and treachery to Hagen, Alberich’s son, who ultimately tosses the accursed object back into the waters of the Rhein River (in a sense, squaring the circle by returning the golden ring to the Rheinmaidens), as a holocaust consumes Valhalla in the twilight of the gods. At times in Wagner’s seventeen-hour work, the ring stands out prominently and drives the action, while on other occasions it is almost totally forgotten and virtually disappears from view as other facets of the plot come to the fore. But it is challenging to trace the course of this ominous object and its corrosive influence on the course of human, subhuman, and superhuman worlds together with the dimensions of the interaction between them.

Format: The seminar’s goals include the following: a critical analysis of the symbolism of the ring in general and of its particular significance in the context of the theft of the Rhine gold; a study of Wagner’s musical “leitmotif” technique for this object as well as other aspects of dramatic interest in his music dramas; to alert the student to the visual and aural components and how they enhance our appreciation of a literary text (or, sometimes in Wagner’s case, enable us to appreciate a “total work of art” – the Gesamtkunstwerk – in spite of what appear to be the aesthetic shortcomings of the literary presentation per se). The general plan of the seminar: the basic texts for the class will include regular reading assignments from the paperback edition of The Ring of the Nibelung of about 40 pages a week. Each class meeting will consist of a brief introduction of background material by the instructor and then a student-led discussion based on the topics assigned in advance to a particular student, together with contributions from others in the course. Part of the class time will be devoted to showing and commenting on selected scenes from a sub-titled video version of the Ring tetralogy, corresponding to the text assignment for that day. In addition to the reading assignments, the students will be able to listen to audio tapes by John Culshaw on the motivic structure of the cycle, by Allister Cooke on the intellectual background of the work, and a devastating parody by Anna Russell of the Wagnerian Ring cycle. George B. Shaw’s analysis The Perfect Wagnerite will be available for those who wish to do additional reading and research. Finally, copies of the video tapes used in class will be at the students’ disposal in the Instructional Media Center in Hart Hall for out-of-class viewing. Grading: 40% of the course grade will be based on the oral contributions of the student in class (the assigned topic as well as additional participation in discussions); the remaining 60% of the grade will be based on a written final examination based on several topics and themes given in advance to the students for preparation outside of class.

About the Instructor: I came to Davis as an Assistant Professor of German in 1965 and remained on the active faculty until 1993 (aside from two guest professorships, one at Dartmouth in 1976 and the other at the University of Exeter, England, in 1989-90). Twice I served as Chair of the Department of German and Russian 1981-1984; 1996-1997) and for five years I was the director of the Summer Institute for German language and Culture at UC Santa Barbara. I have had three Fulbright grants and one Guggenheim Fellowship, all of which have enabled me to further my study and scholarship in Europe. My research has focused primarily on German Romantic and modern literature, with a heavy emphasis on musicoliterary ties. Since retirement, I have, aside from teaching one course each year from 1993-1997, had more time for musical pursuits: I also play tennis daily and golf weekly (some would say “weakly”), but I have also continued my research in German literature. During recent years, for instance, I have given invited lectures at Trinity College, Dublin, at the Gregoriana in the Vatican, and at the University of Karlsruhe (all these presentations have now been published). On the whole, musical composition constitutes my most cherished avocation. In addition to being a member of the Davis Community Church Choir, I also sang with the UCD Symphony and Chorus in Brahms’ “Requiem” this year.