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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Donington redux, from a female point of view, May 18, 2004
While reading Donington's brilliant analysis of Wagner's Nibelungenring, I often feel that he has a blind spot for women's psychology and experiences. This is most evident in how all the female (as well as some male) characters are generally seen as mere aspects of the central, male psychology of Wotan. My question was, does this blindness come from Donnington, or from Wagner? To answer this question, I went looking for a woman's interpretation of the Ring, and I found Bolen's. In short, Bolen's book shows that Wagner's insight into female psychology goes further than what Donington reveals.
Bolen's background is in clinical psychology, and this colours her analysis. Where Donington sees the cast of the Ring as aspects of one single (male) psychology, Bolen sees it as a dysfunctional family ruled by a narcissistic patriarch. In a way she falls into a trap which is very similar to Donington's, as she reduces Wotan to a one-dimensional character whose relevance is only that of the guilty party in the dysfunction of the whole "family". However, the proof of the pudding is whether her analysis rings true, and for me she does shed new light on this story that has been with me for a long time.
As an example I will mention what is perhaps the most difficult part of the story to understand at a psychological level, Siegfried's betrayal of Brunhilde. In Bolen's analysis, Siegfried, having been brought up by Mime, has never experienced love, but merely the pretense of love. When he meets Brunhilde, he is therefore unable to understand the depth of emotion that she has for him. While he benefits from her love, he does not understand the degree to which his commitment to her is expected and required, since the only other "love" he has experienced was that of Mime, which contained no commitment at all. This makes Siegfried able to betray.
She then compares Siegfried's encounter with the Gibichungs to that of a social climber, noting how Siegfried, like Gunther and Gutrune, stand to gain in social standing by their association. Surrounded by members of a higher social class, to which he want to gain entry, Siegfried now also has the incentive to betray Brunhilde, which he does. To me, this way of looking at the story is refreshingly different from Donington's, yet based on a similar psychological foundations, and in no way in conflict with it.
Bolen is not a long-time "Ring-head" (to use her own phrase), the book appears to have been written rather soon after a powerful first encounter with Wagner's work. For instance, she makes a point of Gunther attempting to avert Hagen's murder of Siegfried --- something that I don't believe is in Wagner's text, but which may have been done at the particular Ring production she happened to see. The analysis is based almost entirely on the story and the libretto (and on Donington as well), and makes few references to the music. She does not have Donington's complete mastery of the text, the music and Wagner's biography (including factual errors like saying that the Ring was written in four years). What she does bring is a feminist viewpoint, as well as many convincing examples of modern day situations that may produce similar dysfunctions to the ones she sees in the Ring. Bolen's text does in no way replace Donningtons, but it makes a valuable companion to it, one that for me filled a gaping hole in that otherwise invaluable text. To me, this book opens up the parts of the Ring that is outside of my personal experience as a man, and I would imagine it might also be a good point of entry for women into the world of the Ring.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jung, Women & Wagner: A Powerful Trio, November 26, 2001
I won't launch into an academic review or a precise of the story. Suffice to say that this is a wonderful book. For 30 - something women, particularly who identify with a patriarchal 'Wotan' figure and his defiant daughter (Brunnhilde) who forsakes wealth and power for love, this is a journey with which you will be familiar. And a wonderfully warm insight into what can be acheived by such women should they take some risks and act from their hearts! Many books have been written on the suppression of the feminine in society but this multi faceted gem allows a glimpse of so many layers of understanding in such an accessible way that it is irresistible. A peek at Carl Jung, an introduction to the genius of Wagner, the insights of the mythologies and the interpretation and storytelling genius of Jean Shinoda Bolen. If nothing else, this book is good value! So much in one package - a rare find these days indeed!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book for the Ring lover, feminist and psychologist alike, March 19, 2000
This was the book I was looking for when I first discovered the Ring, probably 15 years or so ago. It is a book for the Ring lover, feminist, and psychologist alike. Although Jean Bolen writes from a psychological, rather than a musical perspective, her understanding adds immeasureably to the experience of the music. And it also adds to our understanding of the story, and the archetypal levels of meaning that underlie any powerful myth. Jean is a natural storyteller. She brings the story of the Rheingold and the Gods to life and into everyday consciousness. From her feminist, Jungian perspective, she describes how the themes of the Ring, though universal, specifically apply to our lives today. In the Rheingold, she talks about the quest for power and its' psychological cost, in the Valkyrie, she discusses the authoritarian father and the repressed feminine, in Siegfried, the hero as adult-child and in Gotterdammerung, how the truth brings an end to the cycle of destructive power. In two particularly moving chapters, she describes what we can do today to free ourselves from the "ring Cycle" and move beyond Valhalla into a Post-Patriarchal world. I would highly recommend this book as an addition to her previous works, "Goddesses in Everywoman" and "Gods in Everyman", but also as a stand-alone, too. It should appeal to a wider audience, in that it will also include music lovers who may be unfamiliar with Jungian-feminist theory but are looking for a richer understanding of the Ring. In addition, it should appeal to people-in-general who are searching for truth-in-story and myth and music as a way out of patriarchal consciousness.
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by Jean Shinoda Bolen
by Jean Bolen MD Shinoda
