Wagner and Wagnerism in Philosophy, Art, and Culture

ATINER is organizing a Special Session on “Wagner and Wagnerism in Philosophy, Art, and Culture: On Deconstructing the Cultural Traces” as part of the 15^th Annual International Conference on Visual and Performing Arts, 10-13 June 2024, Athens, Greece, sponsored by the Athens Journal of Humanities & Arts.

In the fin de siècle era, Wagnerism, as a cultural and philosophical phenomenon, set one of the main tendencies of the artistic thinking in general. Quite in accordance with the Gesamtkunstwerk idea, it influenced various art types (especially, literature and painting) and, later, cinema. The trace of Wagner’s personality, his aesthetic views and principles continues to exist in the contemporary cultural field as an object of different references (historical-analytical, socio-anthropological, including the mentality issue, political, artistic per se), which allow to mention both new ways of interpretation and deconstruction (in Derrida’s version) of the phenomenon, called by Nietzsche Der Fall Wagner. The special session invites researchers to contribute to the study of the semantic shifts that have taken place in the conceptualisation of the Wagnerian phenomenon over a century and a half. The following aspects are present: 1) international features of Wagnerism in art and the specific national forms of its implementation; 2) manifestations of Wagnerism in the visual arts, literature, and cinema; 3) philosophical-aesthetic origins of Wagnerism in different countries; 4) Wagnerism as a socio-cultural discourse; 5) Wagnerism and the creative process issue (in particular, means and results of deconstruction of the Wagnerian artistic thinking from the second half of the 19th century); 6) the political aspects of Wagnerism. The proceedings of the meeting can result in defining the major strategies of implementation of Wagnerism, which have existed up to the present time, as well as their contextual analysis on the background of the epistemological principles of the evolution of human sciences.
Keywords: Richard Wagner, Wagnerism, deconstruction, Nietzsche, artistic thinking, Gesamtkunstwerk, interdisciplinarity, human sciences

You may participate as presenter of one session or observer.

Please submit an abstract (by email only) to: atiner@atiner.gr, using the abstract submission form by 30 April 2024 to: Dr. Elena Rovenko, Academic Member, ATINER & Researcher, Strasbourg University, France. 

Abstracts should include the following details: Title of Paper, Full Name (s), Affiliation, Current Position, an email address, and at least 3 keywords that best describe the subject of your submission. Decisions are reached within 4 weeks.

Fee structure information is available on www.atiner.gr/fees.

Special arrangements will be made with a local hotel for a limited number of rooms at a special conference rate. In addition, a number of special events will be organized which give a great opportunity to further discuss the issues presented at the conference. From ATINER’s long experience these events bring together scholars from different countries and disciplines which may result to research collaborations and joint publications. These events include a pragmatic symposium (as organized in Ancient Athens but fine-tuned to synchronous ethics), a special one-day educational island tour, a Mycenae and island of Poros visit, an Athens educational walking tour, a day trip to Delphi, and an ancient Corinth and Cape Sounion visit. Details of the social program are available here.