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BLURRING BOUNDARIES: ISSUES OF GENDER, MADNESS, AND IDENTITY IN LIBBY LARSEN'S OPERA 'MRS. DALLOWAY'

HOLLAND, ANYA B.

Abstract Details

2005, M.M., University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music : Music History.
Although Libby Larsen’s opera Mrs. Dalloway (1992) is not Larsen’s most frequently performed opera, its subject matter and musical content offer a wealth of cross-disciplinary avenues for investigation. Mrs. Dalloway challenges the traditional linear pattern of operatic plot, blurs boundaries of gender and madness, and emphasizes characterization above all else, thereby presenting numerous possibilities for gendered interpretations. In order to explore musical and literary interpretations of gender, madness, and identity in Mrs. Dalloway, this thesis will analyze these issues with respect to the interaction of literary and operatic criticism. Larsen corroborates Woolf’s literary ideals musically. Her compositional tools, for example, confirm Woolf’s notion that there is not a clear division between sanity and insanity, and that gender is ambiguous. Larsen also parallels Woolf’s literary style in a musical manner, by such techniques as recurring musical gestures.
Dr. Karin Pendle (Advisor)
128 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • HOLLAND, A. B. (2005). BLURRING BOUNDARIES: ISSUES OF GENDER, MADNESS, AND IDENTITY IN LIBBY LARSEN'S OPERA 'MRS. DALLOWAY' [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1122913675

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • HOLLAND, ANYA. BLURRING BOUNDARIES: ISSUES OF GENDER, MADNESS, AND IDENTITY IN LIBBY LARSEN'S OPERA 'MRS. DALLOWAY'. 2005. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1122913675.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • HOLLAND, ANYA. "BLURRING BOUNDARIES: ISSUES OF GENDER, MADNESS, AND IDENTITY IN LIBBY LARSEN'S OPERA 'MRS. DALLOWAY'." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1122913675

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)