Филологический класс (Feb 2019)
JAZZ AS A PHENOMENON OF THE CULTURE OF REMEMBERANCE IN THE COMTEMPORARY GERMAN-LANGUAGE LITERATURE (MICHAEL KÖHLMEIER’S OCCIDENT AND FRIEDRICH CHRISTIAN DELIUS’ THE FUTURE OF BEAUTY)
Abstract
Contemporary intermedial studies of belles-lettres focus on the interaction between literature and music, yet do not pay significant attention to the differentiation of music genres that literature refers to. Even less studied are the specific functions of music in literature, i.e. as an important means remembrance within modern cultural memory. The paper analyzes literary pieces that represent modern German literature of remembrance (Erinnerungsliteratur) and feature jazz as a phenomenon of the culture of remembrance. Thus, the subject of this study is inter-discourse, intermedial, and intertextual links with jazz art, which help form cultural memory in Michael Köhlmeier’s Occident and in Friedrich Christian Delius’ The Future of Beauty. The paper aims at analyzing jazz as the main sound of the 20th century, which foregrounds the historical concept of a modern human and makes the image more profound. At the same time, it is accentuated that jazz is a means of remembrance, which has a strong impact on the creative style of writers who speculate about jazz and its renowned representatives in an autobiographical mode. The research follows the principles of culture studies-based literary criticism, primarily the theory of cultural memory and interdisciplinary study of the link between music and memory, which is actualized with the help of intermediality theory concepts. By featuring jazz, Michael Köhlmeier and Friedrich Christian Delius obtained a special means of remembrance, which brought significantly more clarity to the reception of 20th century history and personal stories stipulated by it. Simultaneously, literature serves as a unique form of transformation for the acoustic phenomenon of jazz, a transformation it needs in order to be involved in the whirlpool of remembrance. Literary interpretation of jazz, its styles and forms, performing practices and concert situations, renowned musicians and their individual manners of playing music used within a broad social and cultural context, specified by individual impressions and perceptions, testify to understanding of jazz as an important cultural phenomenon and, at the same time, as a phenomenon of the culture of remembrance. In addition, it is literature that clearly defines the role of jazz in the culture of remembrance, which is manifested in the way writers portray the most important stages in jazz culture development, which pertain to feelings, emotions, and impressions, and also interpret certain musical means of expression, rhythms, sound nuances and intensity as typical for the turning points and reflections on identity. Both literary works demonstrate apparent professional musical competence necessary for understanding of jazz within the culture of remembrance.
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