Internationalisation in learning and teaching : Thematic Peer Group report

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"Hur grufligt -----O Natur! - - hur ljuft, at vara Mor!" : Moderskapets blick i Bengt Lidners operalibretto Medea

Anna Cullhed, "Hur grufligt - - - - O Natur! – – hur ljuft, at vara Mor!" Moderskapets blick i Bengt Lidners operalibretto Medea. ("How dreadful - - - - O Nature! – – how sweet to be a Mother!" The Gaze of Motherhood in Bengt Lidner's Opera Libretto Medea.) This essay focuses on the Swedish 18th-century poet Bengt Lidner's libretto Medea from the early 1780's. His early manuscript version is seen as a radical experiment with emotional expression, as it turns the classical myth into a drama about motherhood, the family and the problem of sentimental communication. The mother's gaze becomes a focal point for the interpretation, as it stands for an ideal connection between the good mother and her child. The lack of attachment, on the other hand, anticipates disaster: the mother slays her own child. Lidner's version of the ancient Medea tale is interpreted in connection with the debate on child murder in the late 18th century. The Medea theme was common in 18th-century drama in several European countries, as in Goethe's Faust. The literary representation of the Medea/ child-murder theme shows important differences in comparison to legal sources. Medea as mother and the murderous mothers of the court cases were met with an increasing degree of sympathy in the late 18th century. In contrast, the fictional fathers were condemned to a greater extent, while real fathers of illegitimate children were generally freed by the courts towards the end of the century. The Swedish historian Karin Hassan Jansson suggests that while men of the 17th century were expected to control their passions, especially in their roles as heads of the household, 18th-century men were defined as naturally sexual beings, and thus less responsible for acts such as rape. Rank and lineage, important drives in the ancient Medea tragedies by Euripides and Seneca, are replaced by the purely emotional ties of the intimate 18th-century family. Jason turns into an inconstant husband, who abandons Medea in favour of a younger bride. Medea, on the other hand, is in Lidner's version fully transformed into a loving and caring mother and wife. Medea's expressions of conflicting emotions towards her sons and her husband reveal the obstacles to sincere communication. In accordance with Rousseau, in his early essay on the origin of language, Lidner suggests that gestures are to be seen as more authentic compared to conventional language. Jean Starobinski's term "transparency" is crucial to the argument that 18th-century authors are concerned with the issue of communicative means, and the relation between language, gestures, and music. Rousseau developed the genre melodrama to meet his own ideals. The French dramatist Baculard d'Arnaud is of specific importance to the study, since his theoretical discussions of the expression of emotions on stage use Medea as an example. Lidner depends on several models, such as the already mentioned Baculard d'Arnaud, but also the German author Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter. In contrast to the ancient tragedies, the two sons of Medea and Jason enter the stage as speaking characters in the 18th century. They speak, they act, and they plead in their function as carriers of innocence and virtue. Lidner's version is exceptional in its emotional address. At one point, Medea calls herself a pelican, and expresses her wish to nourish her children with her own blood. The pelican is an age-old symbol for Christ. Further, she wishes to envelop her children in her open breast, a wish that explores the Christian allegory even further. The side wound of Christ is considered a hiding place for the soul, a metaphorical expression favoured by the Moravian movement. In his search for an adequate emotional expression, Lidner transgresses not only the borders between divine and worldly spheres, but also of gender. The same kind of trans­gression concerns the members of the family. Medea wants to take revenge on Jason, and she claims to see Jason when she threatens her own sons. One of the sons replies that the dagger will pierce herself, Medea, should she thrust the dagger into his heart. The issues of transparency, of paternal guilt and of motherhood are related to the histo­rian Lynn Hunt's study The Family Romance of the French Revolution. However, in Lidner's libretto, Medea is absolved of guilt. The intensity of her love, according to Lidner, acquits her, even though she kills her own sons. Paradoxically, the murderous mother is at the same time the ideal mother in this late 18th-century version of the Medea myth

A New Medea : Staging Conjugal Passion in Eighteenth-Century Europe

Moving Mede

"Hur grufligt -----O Natur! - - hur ljuft, at vara Mor!" : Moderskapets blick i Bengt Lidners operalibretto Medea

Anna Cullhed, "Hur grufligt - - - - O Natur! – – hur ljuft, at vara Mor!" Moderskapets blick i Bengt Lidners operalibretto Medea. ("How dreadful - - - - O Nature! – – how sweet to be a Mother!" The Gaze of Motherhood in Bengt Lidner's Opera Libretto Medea.) This essay focuses on the Swedish 18th-century poet Bengt Lidner's libretto Medea from the early 1780's. His early manuscript version is seen as a radical experiment with emotional expression, as it turns the classical myth into a drama about motherhood, the family and the problem of sentimental communication. The mother's gaze becomes a focal point for the interpretation, as it stands for an ideal connection between the good mother and her child. The lack of attachment, on the other hand, anticipates disaster: the mother slays her own child. Lidner's version of the ancient Medea tale is interpreted in connection with the debate on child murder in the late 18th century. The Medea theme was common in 18th-century drama in several European countries, as in Goethe's Faust. The literary representation of the Medea/ child-murder theme shows important differences in comparison to legal sources. Medea as mother and the murderous mothers of the court cases were met with an increasing degree of sympathy in the late 18th century. In contrast, the fictional fathers were condemned to a greater extent, while real fathers of illegitimate children were generally freed by the courts towards the end of the century. The Swedish historian Karin Hassan Jansson suggests that while men of the 17th century were expected to control their passions, especially in their roles as heads of the household, 18th-century men were defined as naturally sexual beings, and thus less responsible for acts such as rape. Rank and lineage, important drives in the ancient Medea tragedies by Euripides and Seneca, are replaced by the purely emotional ties of the intimate 18th-century family. Jason turns into an inconstant husband, who abandons Medea in favour of a younger bride. Medea, on the other hand, is in Lidner's version fully transformed into a loving and caring mother and wife. Medea's expressions of conflicting emotions towards her sons and her husband reveal the obstacles to sincere communication. In accordance with Rousseau, in his early essay on the origin of language, Lidner suggests that gestures are to be seen as more authentic compared to conventional language. Jean Starobinski's term "transparency" is crucial to the argument that 18th-century authors are concerned with the issue of communicative means, and the relation between language, gestures, and music. Rousseau developed the genre melodrama to meet his own ideals. The French dramatist Baculard d'Arnaud is of specific importance to the study, since his theoretical discussions of the expression of emotions on stage use Medea as an example. Lidner depends on several models, such as the already mentioned Baculard d'Arnaud, but also the German author Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter. In contrast to the ancient tragedies, the two sons of Medea and Jason enter the stage as speaking characters in the 18th century. They speak, they act, and they plead in their function as carriers of innocence and virtue. Lidner's version is exceptional in its emotional address. At one point, Medea calls herself a pelican, and expresses her wish to nourish her children with her own blood. The pelican is an age-old symbol for Christ. Further, she wishes to envelop her children in her open breast, a wish that explores the Christian allegory even further. The side wound of Christ is considered a hiding place for the soul, a metaphorical expression favoured by the Moravian movement. In his search for an adequate emotional expression, Lidner transgresses not only the borders between divine and worldly spheres, but also of gender. The same kind of trans­gression concerns the members of the family. Medea wants to take revenge on Jason, and she claims to see Jason when she threatens her own sons. One of the sons replies that the dagger will pierce herself, Medea, should she thrust the dagger into his heart. The issues of transparency, of paternal guilt and of motherhood are related to the histo­rian Lynn Hunt's study The Family Romance of the French Revolution. However, in Lidner's libretto, Medea is absolved of guilt. The intensity of her love, according to Lidner, acquits her, even though she kills her own sons. Paradoxically, the murderous mother is at the same time the ideal mother in this late 18th-century version of the Medea myth