Confessional Melancholy: W.G. Sebald’s Aesthetic Solution to the Inadequacy of Representation

In the wake of W.G. Sebald’s death in 2001, scholarship on his unique, genre-bending literary texts has flourished. Though much of this scholarship has paid due attention to the theme of the inadequacy of representation, little has been written that focuses on Sebald’s persistent expressions of melancholy in relation to this theme. In this paper, I argue that Sebald’s response to the inadequacy of representation is “confessional melancholy”: he expresses anguish at that which has been lost by admitting that his own literary representation is inadequate in portraying its subjects. Using a theoretical framework borrowed from Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School philosophers, I show that Sebald ties the inevitable inadequacy of representation to the history of material destruction; in this sense, his expressions of confessional melancholy are ethically motivated. I then explore the effect of this theme on the nature of identity in Sebald’s texts. Finally, I analyze the incorporation of photography in Sebald’s texts and the author’s use of narrative collages to argue that Sebald primarily expresses confessional melancholy through his aesthetic form, as opposed to the content of his literature.https://digitalcommons.slc.edu/undergrad_selectedworks/1003/thumbnail.jp

The Study of Women and Music in Morocco

Panorama of scholarly work on women and music in Morocc

Bostonia: The Boston University Alumni Magazine. Volume 9

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

The Rise and Fall, and the Rise (Again) of Feminist Research in Music: 'What Goes Around Comes Around'

This article reports from a two-phase study that involved an analysis of the extant literature followed by a three-part survey answered by seventy-one women composers. Through these theoretical and empirical data, the authors explore the relationship between gender and music’s symbolic and cultural capital. Bourdieu’s theory of the habitus is employed to understand the gendered experiences of the female composers who participated in the survey. The article suggests that these female composers have different investments in gender but that, overall, they reinforce the male habitus given that the female habitus occupies a subordinate position in relation to that of the male. The findings of the study also suggest a connection between contemporary feminism and the attitudes towards gender held by the participants. The article concludes that female composers classify themselves, and others, according to gendered norms and that these perpetuate the social order in music in which the male norm dominates

When Women Play: The Relationship between Musical Instruments and Gender Style

In many societies, musical roles are divided along gender lines: women sing and men play. Men also sing and women sometimes play; yet, unlike men, women who play often do so in contexts of sexual and social marginality. This essay surveys the literature on women's use of musical instruments in a variety of social and cultural contexts and presents some contemporary anthropological theories regarding the interrelationship between social structure and gender stratification. The author concludes that women's use of musical instruments is related to broader issues of social and gender structure, and that changes in the ideology of these structures often reflect changes that affect women as performers

Macbeth

Based on the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare.90 pagesAdapted screenpla