The Impact of Cultural Studies on Musicology Within the Context of Word and Music Studies : Questions and Answers

Summary, in English

This text discusses different perspectives dealing with the impact of cultural studies on musicology within the context of word and music studies. The question under scrutiny is how the field’s foundation in word and music studies has been reconfigured by existing or changing academic structures. The text contends that the increasing emphasis on cultural studies in literary studies and musicology opens up broader perspectives on the field of word and music studies, while favoring a revised version of formal over hermeneutic engagement with music and text. This means, however, that we must agree on how to interpret the “cultural” in cultural studies. Understanding culture as signifying practice—i.e. that meaning requires human interpretative activity to establish links from a given text—without abandoning formal and structural analysis allows for the integration of word and music studies into musicology. This will also facilitate the further development of word and music studies as a whole.

• Author: Mats Arvidson
• Editor: Beate Schirrmacher; Heidi Hart; Katy Heady; Hannah Hinz
• Department/s: Intermedia Studies; Division of Cultural Management
• Publishing year: 2014
• Language: English
• Pages: 17-29
• Publication/Series: Stockholmer germanistische Forschungen
• Volume: 79
• Links: http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:739968/FULLTEXT01.pdf#page=17
• Document type: Conference paper
• Publisher: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis
• Topic: Cultural Studies; Musicology
• Keywords: cultural studies; musicology; word and music studies; intermedial studies; comparative literature; signifying practice; hermeneutics; semiotics; paratext; Highway Rider; Brad Mehldau; Werner Wolf; Steven Paul Scher; Walter Bernhart; Lawrence Kramer; Johan Fornäs
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 0491-0893; ISBN: 978-91-981947-0-8; ISBN: 978-91-981947-1-5