The Many Faces of Frederic Chopin: Problems in Modern Biography

3 credits · Undergraduate

The seminar examines the process of creating biographical representations in history by focusing on Frederic Chopin (1810–1849) and the appropriations of his life, personality and music, that occurred both during his lifetime and after his death. By analyzing how Chopin’s images were construed—and the manner in which he fashioned himself—the course explores broader themes, such as biography in historical writing, the nineteenth-century paradigm of biography writing, politics of biography, biography and the construction of the subject, biography as a control of cultural memory and the limits of biographical knowledge. PREREQUISITES: One European history course, permission of instructor FORMATS: Seminar