New essays demonstrating and exploring the abiding fascination of Wagner's controversial work. Richard Wagner's Parsifal remains an inexhaustible yet highly controversial work. This "stage consecration festival play," as the composer described it, represents the culmination of his efforts to bring medieval myth and modern music together in a dynamic relationship. Wagner's engagement with religion--Buddhist as well as Christian--reaches a climax here, as he seeks through artistic means "to rescue the essence of religion by perceiving its mythical symbols . . . according to their figurative value, enabling us to see their profound, hidden truth through idealized representation." The contributors to this collection break fresh ground in exploring the text, the music, andthe reception history of Parsifal. Wagner's borrowings-and departures-from the medieval sources of the Grail legend, Wolfram's Parzival and Chretien's Perceval, are considered in detail, and the tensional relation of the work to Christianity is probed. New perspectives emerge that bear on the long genesis of the text and music, its affinities to Wagner's earlier works, particularly Tristan und Isolde, and the precise way in which the music was composed. Essays address the work's bold, modernistic musical language and its unprecedented soundscape involving hidden choruses and other unseen sources of sound. The turbulent, astonishing, and sometimes disturbing history of Parsifal performances from 1882 until 2004 is traced in vivid detail for the first time, demonstrating the abiding fascination exerted by this uniquely challenging work of art. Contributors: MaryA. Cicora, James M. McGlathery, Ulrike Kienzle, Warren Darcy, Roger Allen. William Kinderman and Katherine Syer teach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and often lead study seminars during the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany.

'Offers a diverse overview of contemporary folktale scholarship but attests to the significance and scope of the Grimms' work....An excellent overview to current research on the Grimm folktales and evidence of the value of observing significant events in the history of academic disciplines.'--Mary Beth Stein, Journal of America Folklore

E.T.A. Hoffmann, a lawyer and bureaucrat by profession, is most readily recognized as the author of the fairy tale The Nutuacker, which was adapted by Tchaikovsky for his ballet. Hoffmann was also the author of more than three dozen stories, seven fairy tales, and two novels, as well as numerous critical essays on music. In E.T.A. Hoffman, James M. McGlathery provides a complete account of Hoffmann's literary works, including deft summaries of the short stories and thorough explications of the fairy tales and novels. McGlathery's biographical treatment of Hoffmann illuminates how the Napoleonic wars shaped the author's career and subsequent literary development. McGlathery traces other important influences on the developing writer: Hoffmann's acquaintance with several prominent physicians sparked his interest in the emerging field of psychiatric medicine and inspired the psychological elements of his writing. Hoffmann's music criticism is also given due attention and is examined against his fiction. His works reflect the Romantic era in Germany and are early examples of an interest in the subconscious in literature.