Animals, Mimesis, and the Origin of Language
This essay takes a pivotal scene in Richard Wagner’s opera Siegfried, in which the eponymous hero attempts to communicate with a forest bird by imitating its song, as a point of departure for an exploration of Enlightenment theories of the origin of language, specifically those of Rousseau and Herde...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Presses universitaires de Strasbourg
2015-07-01
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| Series: | Recherches Germaniques |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/rg/879 |
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| _version_ | 1841547551496470528 |
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| author | Kári Driscoll |
| author_facet | Kári Driscoll |
| author_sort | Kári Driscoll |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay takes a pivotal scene in Richard Wagner’s opera Siegfried, in which the eponymous hero attempts to communicate with a forest bird by imitating its song, as a point of departure for an exploration of Enlightenment theories of the origin of language, specifically those of Rousseau and Herder. The moment when Siegfried tries and fails to imitate the bird’s song represents a concurrence of themes from these earlier philosophical discourses and serves to elucidate how here, as in Rousseau and Herder’s accounts, animals are present at—indeed, seem to bring about—the origin of the very thing which later excludes them, namely language. Both Rousseau and Herder allude to the popular idea that the first language was metaphorical, and for both the origin of language is the result of a mimetic encounter with an animal. In reading these accounts in conjunction with the Siegfried episode, I aim to show how imitation, indeed a specifically human failure of imitation, is the root of representation and thus ultimately of the human–animal divide itself. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2843c8d0ed5041458403337421ca60f3 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0399-1989 2649-860X |
| language | deu |
| publishDate | 2015-07-01 |
| publisher | Presses universitaires de Strasbourg |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Recherches Germaniques |
| spelling | doaj-art-2843c8d0ed5041458403337421ca60f32025-01-10T14:28:12ZdeuPresses universitaires de StrasbourgRecherches Germaniques0399-19892649-860X2015-07-011017319410.4000/rg.879Animals, Mimesis, and the Origin of LanguageKári DriscollThis essay takes a pivotal scene in Richard Wagner’s opera Siegfried, in which the eponymous hero attempts to communicate with a forest bird by imitating its song, as a point of departure for an exploration of Enlightenment theories of the origin of language, specifically those of Rousseau and Herder. The moment when Siegfried tries and fails to imitate the bird’s song represents a concurrence of themes from these earlier philosophical discourses and serves to elucidate how here, as in Rousseau and Herder’s accounts, animals are present at—indeed, seem to bring about—the origin of the very thing which later excludes them, namely language. Both Rousseau and Herder allude to the popular idea that the first language was metaphorical, and for both the origin of language is the result of a mimetic encounter with an animal. In reading these accounts in conjunction with the Siegfried episode, I aim to show how imitation, indeed a specifically human failure of imitation, is the root of representation and thus ultimately of the human–animal divide itself.https://journals.openedition.org/rg/879 |
| spellingShingle | Kári Driscoll Animals, Mimesis, and the Origin of Language Recherches Germaniques |
| title | Animals, Mimesis, and the Origin of Language |
| title_full | Animals, Mimesis, and the Origin of Language |
| title_fullStr | Animals, Mimesis, and the Origin of Language |
| title_full_unstemmed | Animals, Mimesis, and the Origin of Language |
| title_short | Animals, Mimesis, and the Origin of Language |
| title_sort | animals mimesis and the origin of language |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/rg/879 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT karidriscoll animalsmimesisandtheoriginoflanguage |