Sieghild Bogumil-Notz

4E Transcoding Opera and Musical Theatre
Session 4 – July 2, 15:30 – 17:30

Turandot – A Feminist Heroine Crossing and Defying the Media

The figure of Turandot today is mainly known as the protagonist of the homonymous opera of Puccini. Yet, this is the end of the long tradition of transcodifications the figure has undergone. From various forms of narration where the initially nameless heroine at a certain moment got her famous name she was caught in a crossfire of dramatic transpositions until reaching the stage as an opera heroine. The intention of the paper is to trace the development of the Turandot figure from her first occurrence in a story of the Persian poet Nezami (1197) along the centuries and the transcodifications caused by literary, philosophical, and societal changes in Italy, France and Germany. In view of the specific understanding of the concept of media today, i.e. suggesting immediately the idea of mass media, it will be necessary at the beginning of the paper to theoretically reconsider the definition of the notion before entering into the core of the subject.

Bio

Sieghild BOGUMIL-NOTZ, Habilitée à Diriger des Recherches (HDR), Paris Sorbonne III; associated professor of Comparative Literature at the Ruhr-University Bochum and co-opted member at the Department for Theatre Studies; Professor at the Universities of Wuppertal and Kassel, rtd.

Recent Publications: Co-ed.: Bernard-Marie Koltès au carrefour des écritures contemporaines (2000) (Bernard-Marie Koltès at the crossing of contemporary writings); Ed.: Heroes Anywhere and Forever From a German, Indian, and American Perspective (2015); Co-ed.: Erinnern für die Zukunft. Griechenland, Polen und Deutschland im Gespräch (2016) (Remembering for the Future. A Dialogue Between Greece, Poland, and Germany); Paul Celan – Die fortschreitende Erschließung der Wirklichkeit beim Schreiben (2020) (Paul Celan – The Progressive Rediscovery of the Reality while Writing)