A Study of Intertextuality: Thomas Mann's Tristan and Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

A Study of Intertextuality: Thomas Mann's Tristan and Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde Stevie Anne Bolduc University of Colorado When Ducrot and Todorov undertake to define intertextuality in The Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Sciences of Language, they present a definition rooted in linguistics. Their major premise is that language contains not merely a descriptive orientation but also a dynamic thrust that gives full play to a creative, "differentiated infinity whose unlimited combinatorial never finds a frontier."1 They view the text as not existing in any one particular time niche; Rather, meanings anterior and posterior to the experiencing of the text at a given time become integral to its totality. In addition, they view the reader-writer relation as essential for intertextuality, forming two productivities that intersect, creating a new space with their intersection (Ducrot and Todorov, p. 357). This theory of language obviously can be extended to a wider perspective where intertextuality embraces character development, presentation of theme, setting, literary structure, and genre; the interface of these literary elements creates an inexhaustible potential for character interpretation and thematic amplification; the text then becomes open to a limitless genesis of significations. Intertextuality allows a fruitful perspective for analysis of the thematic implications of any given literary text, as well as analysis of character, setting, and symbolic implications. The novels and stories of Thomas Mann provide excellent illustrations of intertextuality in literature, for the precision of his writing technique, character development, and thematic presentation depends ultimately upon the complex interactions among the many elements of literary structure within one text and among several texts. Mann's early novella Tristan provides an eloquent paradigm for this point. He constructs his text upon elements of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde — specifically, a parallel plot structure, characterizations, and narrative line, and a contrasting setting and theme. 1. Oswald Ducrot and Tzvetan Todorov, Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Sciences of Language, tr. Catherine Porter (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979), p. 358. Stevïe Anne Bolduc83 Sophia Schnitman, in her excellent analysis "Musical Motives in Thomas Mann's Tristan," discusses the relationship of Thomas Mann's Tristan to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and traces in detail Mann's use of leitmotif to support her thesis that Tristan has a musical structure based on Wagner's opera.2 Mann, however, uses not only leitmotif to provide a structural basis for Tristan, but also the three-part structure of Wagner's opera (exposition, climax, and resolution) and the triangle relationship of lovers. Further, Mann employs specific musical composition techniques in his literary context. The parallels to Wagner's musical structure enhance Mann's thematic contrasts to the famous Wagnerian love theme.3 In order to discuss the structural parallels between Wagner's opera and Mann's novella, one must distinguish between literary structure and musical structure. Literary structure refers to plot structure, narrative details, thematic development, character development, use of symbols, and setting. Musical structure is accomplished by means of thematic development: repetition, contrast, variation, and concentration, as well as the formal structural divisions.4 The literary structures of Mann's Tristan and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde contain many similarities ofnarrative line, plot division, setting, characterization, symbols, and language. In the love duet of the novella there are words and phrases that have been taken directly from Wagner's libretto.5 Mann employs the Wagnerian myth in his setting of night, but inverts the season. Spinell and Gabriele do not meet in the warmth of a summer evening; rather, they come together in a twilight that deepens into a cold and snowy winter night. The cold of winter contrasts with the luxuriant 2.Sophia Schnitman, "Musical Motives in Thomas Mann's Tristan," Modern Language Notes, 86 (1971), 399-414. 3.Robert Henry Riemann, in his dissertation The Role ofMusicin the Novels of Thomas Mann (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1971), also explores music as a structural element for Mann's novels; and Frank Young has done an exhaustive study of the literary allusions that form leitmotifs in Tristan in his dissertation Montage and Motif in Thomas Mann's 'Tristan' (Ph.D., University of Washington, 1972). 4.James Northcote-Bade has done an interesting...