new website

...if you like, you can follow this project here! New publications, lectures and radio shows added yesterday... ^_^

Identity through Othering

Tomorrow, I will present some thoughts about identity through othering - with a Siren song as case study - at the university of Utrecht. A pdf of the powerpoint presentation can be downloaded here (in Dutch).

Framework version 1.2

For centuries, people have recreated Mermaids in music. Apparently, there is ‘something’ about them that keeps us fascinated. How come? In my research project, I will develop a theoretical framework for analysing music about Mermaids, to gain a better understanding of the feelings of longing and belonging this musics evoke. This is my version 1.2, but I fear that I am still to much a 'binary thinker' to handle this ambiguous concepts...

Space	Place
Longing	Belonging
Individual identity	Group identity
Dream / supernatural	Real world
Fairy tale	Daily life
Desire	Fear
Freedom	Safety / control

I expect these ambiguities will in the end merge in what Bhabha calls ‘Unhomeliness’ - a feeling which has to do with becoming a stranger in a once familiar place, and sliding into a liminal space and time where other paradigmatic concepts such as the public and the private, or the political and the personal become mixed. Presumably because of its status as a paradigmatic condition, one cannot adequately pin down unhomeliness, but this concept might well be the key to answering some of my questions.

Summary of March 2010

At this moment, my work can be divided into five parts:

1.) Learning Latin (minor)
2.) Developing a theoretical framework by combining and comparing different philosophical and sociological concepts
3.) Analysing the use of folk songs in Dargomyzhshky's opera Rusalka
4.) Analysing pop and folk songs about Sirens
5.) Collecting information about Mermaids in Celtic mythology, for an article in the scolarly magazine Kelten.

Rusalka

Today, I finished my power point presentation about the use of folk songs in Dargomyzhshky's opera Rusalka. Click here for a pdf (in English).

Loreley's Travels through Place & Space

Today, I finished the power point for my presentation about Loreley's Travels through Place & Space. For a pdf-version, just click here.

Case study: Siren Song

The 'Siren Song' from the film O Brother Where Art Thou. Tomorrow, I'll present this case study @ the uni Utrecht. Click here for a pdf of the power point (in Dutch).