The Eroticism of the Violin in German Literature at the Turn of the 20th Century

Since the Middle Ages, the violin has been charged with meaning. While the
fiddle-playing Death is familiar from numerous pictorial representations, it is less
commonly known that the violin has also played an important role in literature since
the Baroque period. This richly illustrated lecture will focus on the German-language
literature of the turn of the 20th century, a time when the erotic dimension of violin
playing aroused the interest of many writers. Not only do we encounter the figure
of the ‘beautiful violinist’ in short prose works and novels, but the seductive tone
produced by the instrument also becomes a source of fascination. Vera Viehöver
will demonstrate this by means of selected examples from texts by Hofmannsthal,
Schnitzler, Thomas Mann, Kafka and others, and will conclude with a famous
episode from Proust’s novel Du côté de chez Swann.
Vera Viehöver is professor of German Literature at the University of Liège. Her
research and fields of interest include Enlightenment and Romantism Studies,
musician autobiographies, women’s authorship and agency, French-German literary
transfer and translation theory. She is currently working on a book entitled Violins
and violinists in Literature. A History of the Rise and Fall of the Bourgeoisie.