Exploring displacement as a theoretical paradigm for understanding John Joubert's opera Silas Marner

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In a world of increased mobility, a growing number of people find themselves in placesother than those that they originate from. While a strong case has been made in variousdisciplines for the experiences of alienation and disruption emanating from the politicallytinctured notion of exile, this thesis argues that these experiences affect all émigrés alike,be it the consequence of forced or voluntary migration. It is this study's aim to nuance theunderstanding of displacement and explore the ways in which the exile discourse informsa general, less extreme discourse of voluntary displacement with specific reference to thecomposer John Joubert and his opera Silas Marner. In the first chapter, displacement istheorized as a doubleness or ambivalence that is important in understanding creativework done by those who have been displaced and that is informed, in the South Africancomposer's case, by the relationship between the centre of 'the' art music tradition inEurope and Britain and its 'peripheral' practice in South Africa. The second chapterargues the ways that notions of nationality still inform thinking about composers and theiraesthetic in a time that nationality is no longer a monolithic, stable denominator. This isdone with specific reference to the composer John Joubert. In the third and fourthchapters, the focus narrows to Joubert's opera Silas Marner (op. 31), and exploresdisplacement as a theoretical paradigm for reading and studying of the opera. The thirdchapter discusses the choice of subject matter of the opera and the significance of Eliot'snovel as basis for an operatic text. Finally, the fourth chapter provides a brief analysis ofthe opera, its conception and reception history as well as a critical discussion of the waysin which notions of displacement is present in this work.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University