The problem of reality in writings of Richard Wagner reality of artwork as transition from „reality of the contemporary world“ towards „reality of the future world“

pages: 257-273

Abstract

Richard Wagner began perceiving the world in terms of decay as early as the mid-1840s and especially during the 1848-49 revolution. He did not critique the contemporary world (and its accompanying reality) as someone who merely understood it in his own way. Wagner actually developed his own version of the world that was meant to become the referential framework for creating an entirely different reality in the future. The most exhaustive source concerning Wagner’s idea of the world and reality is his famous letter to August Röckel, from 25-26 January 1854. In it Wagner put together his earlier ref lections on reality into a relatively coherent and meaningful whole. He did it by the means of several different concepts: „the World as a whole“, „the actual world“, „reality of the world“/„the modern reality“. In this letter and elsewhere, he failed to elaborate his idea of the world, as well as to explain its relationship with „the modern reality“ that was undergoing change. Instead, he developed another idea: that of the artwork which was supposed to be a sort of mediator between „the actual world“ and „the world of the future“, as well as between their accompanying realities. Wagner’s version of the „actual world“ (as well as its appropriate reality) comprised two components: „the actual world“ itself and the artwork, which was already changing it. Such a work contained a description of the change, understood in terms of regeneration, and thus also a prediction of the way reality itself should change in the future, as well as the direction of the change. Keywords: Richard Wagner, reality, artwork, world, regeneration