'Cantor of the enduring human heart' Wagner in the Parisian press, 1933

Abstract

In 1933, then, as Adolf Hitler came to power and promised to overturn the Treaty of Versailles and rebuild a strong and powerful German nation, one would expect that concepts of nationalism would have continued to provide a suitable framework for French Wagner criticism. And yet, this chapter argues to the contrary: nationalism lost its power as a lens through which to debate Wagner's place in French culture. And the consequent shifts in French discourse on Wagner in the 1930s demand new frameworks for writing about Wagner and the French. The chapter outlines some of the nationalist narratives that dominated French Wagner reception up to the interwar period, reinforcing the notion that Frenc..