Abstract
Jacques Lacan famously defined the Real as “that which resists symbolisation absolutely,” an irreducible negativity always-already haunting our (symbolic) reality—its inherent, constitutive lack. Stemming from this notion, psychoanalysis portrays trauma as an “encounter with the Real,” a radical confrontation with lack that shatters our reality by violently exposing its ontological incompleteness, the utter impossibility of totalising experience. Torn asunder by the traumatic Real, the broken subject nevertheless gradually reconstitutes its reality, repressing the unassimilable Real to restore a semblance of completeness that allows the continuation of life. However, the unsublatable Real inevitably returns, disruptive, in the symptom.
In the music of Wang Xilin (Kaifeng, 1936), the impact of trauma is paramount. Imprisoned and tortured during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Wang often describes his compositions as attempts to musically depict and respond to trauma. In this paper, I develop a dual study on Wang's Piano Concerto (2010), in an attempt to elucidate how trauma can shape and condition a musical work. First, I identify and trace in the score of the Concerto the symptoms of Wang's personal trauma, exposing the points where the void/excess of the Real stages a musical return. In a further, speculative move, I then advance a (psycho)analysis of the Concerto from a purely formal, immanent perspective, a gesture that allows me to demonstrate the negative presence of the Real as an inherent aspect of music that has remained largely ignored in musicological discourse.
In the music of Wang Xilin (Kaifeng, 1936), the impact of trauma is paramount. Imprisoned and tortured during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Wang often describes his compositions as attempts to musically depict and respond to trauma. In this paper, I develop a dual study on Wang's Piano Concerto (2010), in an attempt to elucidate how trauma can shape and condition a musical work. First, I identify and trace in the score of the Concerto the symptoms of Wang's personal trauma, exposing the points where the void/excess of the Real stages a musical return. In a further, speculative move, I then advance a (psycho)analysis of the Concerto from a purely formal, immanent perspective, a gesture that allows me to demonstrate the negative presence of the Real as an inherent aspect of music that has remained largely ignored in musicological discourse.
| Original language | English |
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| Publication status | Published - 25 May 2023 |
| Event | The Aesthetics of Absence in Music of the Twenty-First Century 2023 - Department of Musicology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Duration: 25 May 2023 → 26 May 2023 https://www.hf.uio.no/imv/forskning/aktuelt/arrangementer/konferanser/2023/the-aesthetics-of-absence-in-music-of-the-twenty-f.html |
Conference
| Conference | The Aesthetics of Absence in Music of the Twenty-First Century 2023 |
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| Country/Territory | Norway |
| City | Oslo |
| Period | 25/05/23 → 26/05/23 |
| Internet address |