Wagner’s Ring and German Drama: Comparative Studies in Mythology and History in Drama

In this text, Wagner’s Ring , a phenomenon of the German drama tradition, is situated and examined alongside other major works of the canon. Wagner defines tragedy as a mythological drama. The theoretical foundation of the Ring is a complex dialectic of history and myth. By contrasting the Ring with the dramas of Schiller, Hebbel, Hofmannsthal and Brecht, different facets of Wagner’s work are highlighted beyond theoretical generalizations or broad overviews. This series of comparisons offers insight into the interrelationships of the Ring with the previous German tradition, and also investigates its influence on 20th-century drama and opera. Ideas proposed in this study include the suggestions that Schiller’s Wallenstein trilogy might have served as a covert source for the Ring and that Ariadne auf Naxos and Mahagonny represent parodies of the Ring .