Grand Narratives without Master Narratives

Authors

  • Leonardo J. Waisman Instituto de Humanidades Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)

Keywords:

Master Narratives, Narrativity, Musicology, Grand Narratives

Abstract

Musicology began its life linked to the master narrative of “Western music”, understood as a subject with a real, undisputed existence and a history that it endeavored to narrate in the manner that a novel tells the story of a hero. The gradual refinement that the discipline underwent along the first half of the twentieth century did not carry with it a questioning of that concept. After midcentury, two processes of almost opposite spirit combined to undermine it: scientism and postmodern trends. Both contributed to rob the prior narrative model of its prestige and to disparage any attempt at comprehensive narratives embracing long periods and wide areas. In this paper I attempt to sort out and differentiate the master narratives criticized by Lyotard from the need to build the wide-ranging narrations that the discipline needs. On the basis of the theories of Rick Altman, I propose a model of multi-focal narrative that avoids some of the pitfalls of the mono- or bifocal accounts we have been relying on.

Author Biography

Leonardo J. Waisman, Instituto de Humanidades Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)

Leonardo Waisman realizó sus estudios musicales en las universidades Nacional de Córdoba y de Chicago. Ha publicado estudios sobre el madrigal italiano, la música colonial americana, la práctica de la ejecución de la música antigua, la música popular argentina, la inserción socio-cultural de los estilos musicales y las óperas de Vicente Martín y Soler. Sus más recientes trabajos son una historia de la música colonial iberoamericana y la edición del Ciclo de Ofertorios de las misiones jesuíticas de Chiquitos. Clavecinista y director especializado en música barroca, con actuaciones en América, Europa y el Lejano Oriente.

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Published

2018-08-21

Issue

No. 18 (2017): Dosier: The return of the great stories

Section

Dossier

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