We Have Always Been Transcultural: The Arts as an Example

Wolfgang Welsch, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, has been teaching at the universities of Berlin, Jena and Stanford. He received the Max Planck Research Award and the Premio Internazionale d'Estetica. He has published more than twenty books in aesthetics, cultural philosophy, and anthropology.

Preface

List of Figures



Introduction

 1 Transculturality as a Standard

 2 Transculturality versus Multi- and Interculturality

 3 Opposition to the Mixed Character of Cultures

 4 Conceptual Issues

 5 Glimpses into History

 6 The Mixed Constitution of the Human

 7 The Accusation of ‘Appropriation’

 8 Across the Arts and Continents



I The Own and the Other

 1 Transculturation – the Cuban Paradigm (Fernando Ortíz)

 2 New Anthropophagy (Oswald de Andrade)

 3 Négritude (Léopold Senghor): Peculiarity According to a Foreign Guideline

 4 Paul Gauguin: Dreams of the South Seas

 5 Pablo Picasso: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon – a paradigm shift

 6 Antonín Dvořák: an ‘American’ symphony

 7 Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly: Failure in Life, Success in Music

 8 From Li Bo to Gustav Mahler

 9 Simone Leigh: a Black Sphinx



II Transformations

 1 The Transcultural Roots of Greece

 2 Europe – an Import from Phoenicia

 3 Gandhara – a Hinge between West and East

 4 China and Japan: the Foreign Becomes the Own



III Transcultural Continuation of Antiquity

 1 Dürer: the Fall of Man – Ancient Models Given a Modern Interpretation

 2 Opera: Misunderstanding and New Interpretation of Antiquity

 3 The Antique Model in the Architecture of the 20th Century

 4 From Odysseus to Ulysses



IV Inspirations

 1 Dürer – a Venetian

 2 Goethe and Hafiz – Twins Across Centuries

 3 Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe – Antiquity and Renaissance Have Painted Along

 4 Hokusai, van Gogh, Kurosawa – from East Asia to Europe and Back

 5 Wilson and Mnouchkine – Transcultural Theater



V Transcultural by Constitution

 1 Carl Zuckmayer: Numerous Migration Backgrounds

 2 Goethe: National Literature? World Literature!

 3 Ibsen’s Peer Gynt: a World Wanderer

 4 Belkis Ayón: Transcultural-Emancipatory Identity

 5 Haruki Murakami: Transculturality Is Nothing Special



VI Coming Together

 1 Hagia Sophia: Religious Discord, Transcultural Concord

 2 Córdoba: Convivencia

 3 The Gothic Style: the Wonderful Result of a Series of Confusions

 4 John Cage: East Asian Inspirations

 5 Michael Jackson: We Are All Related to Each Other

 6 Postmodern Architecture: Patchwork or Transcultural?

 7 Design: Transcultural Reflections

 8 Cloud Gate Dance Theater: National Pride Transcultural

 9 West-Eastern Divan Orchestra: Convivencia in Music



VII Problematic Aspects and Failures

 1 Ethnic and Nationalistic Lashing by the Art Market

 2 Art against Demarcations

 3 Monsieur Claude and His Daughters: Racism Instead of Transculturality

 4 Bronzes of Shame



VIII Transfers

 1 African Carmen

 2 Dancer and Runner

 3 Europeras: Return in Shredded Form

 4 Transfers between Artistic Genres

 5 Italo-Western: from West to East and Back Again

 6 Transculturality of Menus

 7 Overplaying the Human-Animal Difference

 8 Pretty Best Friends: across Social Differences

 9 Death Metal and Buddhism



ix Universals as the Depth Basis of Transculturality

 1 Universal Appreciation across Cultures

 2 The Modern Denial of Universals – and Its Refutation

 3 Universal Understanding as a Result of Sustained Effort

 4 Universality – Advantages of Film and Music

 5 Peter Brook: a Universal The