About

This thesis reappraises ways in which the early Romantic Lied constructs subjects and gendered discourses by shifting the critical focus from text to voice. Challenging the textual priorities in much of Lied studies, I focus on the material voice—understood as not separate from but inheres in language—in particular recordings and performances. My conception of voice, sonority and textuality is inspired by contemporary feminist theory in the French tradition. I seek to reclaim the subversive, generative capacity of the voice vis-a-vis the Lied in reference to writers such as Cixous, Kristeva and Cavarero, drawing particularly on the notion of ‘feminine writing’ (Cixous 1976). I bring out points of resonance between this literature, lyric theory, and early German Romantic philosophy, particularly in its epistemic and aesthetic syncretism and the importance it places on poetics. I also investigate ways in which the piano can potentially expand the sound world in gynocentric writings, which have generally been tied to the sound of spoken language. More broadly, via Merleau-Ponty and Ihde, I explore ways in which an aural epistemology opens up multisensory perception. Through these mutually enriching perspectives, I posit the Lied as a multiply mediated Gesamkunst, revising its cultural image of naturalness and simplicity by rendering it a form anchored in phenomenological ways of listening and being.