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Beyond the Glockenspiel: Teaching Race and Gender in Mozart's Zauberflöte

2014; Wiley; Volume: 47; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/tger.10151

1756-1221

Alyssa Howards,

Historical Linguistics and Language Studies

Die Zauberflöte is simultaneously one of Mozart's most accessible and most complex operas. Yet while this duality makes it a potentially valuable cultural artifact for the language classroom, students' unfamiliarity with both its operatic genre and Enlightenment context can pose a challenge to teachers. This article functions as a historical backdrop and teaching guide, offering a focused look at the opera's treatment of two of its central themes that remain relevant today: gender and race. By comparing the treatment of these social issues seen in Der Zauberflöte and with contemporary German pop songs, we can help students peer beyond the surface‐level entertainment of the opera, giving them both a richer understanding of its Enlightenment context while adding a new layer with which to understand contemporary German and U.S. culture.