When the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was founded in 1949, its leaders did not position it as a new state. Instead, they represented East German socialism as the culmination of all that was positive in Germany's past. The GDR was heralded as the second German Enlightenment, a society in which the rational ideals of progress, Bildung, and revolution that had first come to fruition with Goethe and Beethoven would finally achieve their apotheosis. Central to this founding myth was the Germanic musical heritage. Just as the canon had defined the idea of the German nation in the nineteenth-century, so in the GDR it contributed to the act of imagining the collective socialist state.
Composing the Canon in the German Democratic Republic uses the reception of the Germanic musical heritage to chart the changing landscape of musical culture in the German Democratic Republic. Author Elaine Kelly demonstrates the nuances of musical thought in the state, revealing a model of societal ascent and decline that has implications that reach far beyond studies of the GDR itself. The first book-length study in English devoted to music in the GDR, Composing the Canon in the German Democratic Republic is a seminal text for scholars of music in the Cold War and in Germany more widely.

This significant volume moves music-historical research in the direction of deconstructing the national grand narratives in music history, of challenging the national paradigm in methodology, and thinking anew about cultural traffic, cultural transfer and cosmopolitanism in the musical past. The chapters of this book confront, or subject to some kind of critique, assumptions about the importance of the national in the musical past. The emphasis, therefore, is not so much on how national culture has been constructed, or how national cultural institutions have influenced musical production, but, rather, on the way the national has been challenged by musical practices or audience reception.

This significant volume moves music-historical research in the direction of deconstructing the national grand narratives in music history, of challenging the national paradigm in methodology, and thinking anew about cultural traffic, cultural transfer and cosmopolitanism in the musical past. The chapters of this book confront, or subject to some kind of critique, assumptions about the importance of the national in the musical past. The emphasis, therefore, is not so much on how national culture has been constructed, or how national cultural institutions have influenced musical production, but, rather, on the way the national has been challenged by musical practices or audience reception.

Explores the complex ethical dilemmas of human mobility in the context of climate changeCurrently, adaptation policy for climate change prioritises economic and technological dimensions of governance and action. Now, Elaine Kelly brings continental theory into the conversation to explore the ethical dilemmas stemming from emerging global political crises of migration, displacement and communal relocation related to climate change. She argues that, in the era of anthropocentric climate change, an 'ethos of dwelling' must underpin adaptation practices. Key FeaturesThe first focused engagement to apply deconstruction and Levinasian ethics to the pressing and complex dilemmas of climate change and human mobilityDetailed case studies of Bangladesh, the Torres Strait Islands and Queensland in Australia and New Orleans in the US bring into sharp focus the ethics and politics of adapting to climate change and how this universal phenomenon is experienced unevenly by the poor and marginalisedInterdisciplinary and multi-methodological approach, relevant to disciplines from cultural studies to philosophy and from ecohumanities to international relations

Explores the complex ethical dilemmas of human mobility in the context of climate change Currently, adaptation policy for climate change prioritises economic and technological dimensions of governance and action. Now, Elaine Kelly brings continental theory into the conversation to explore the ethical dilemmas stemming from emerging global political crises of migration, displacement and communal relocation related to climate change. She argues that, in the era of anthropocentric climate change, an 'ethos of dwelling' must underpin adaptation practices.