Conference paper

Franz Xaver Koch vs. Franjo Ksaver Kuhač. Musical and Other Identities: A Sketch for a Phychological Portrait

Stanislav Tuksar orcid.org/0000-0002-7171-2801 ; Muzička akademija Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Odsjek za muzikologiju, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Abstract

Stark and "objectivizing" facts on the identity of Franjo Ksaver Kuhač, i.e. on the fact that he was born as Franz Xaver Koch with strictly German parents, that his mother tongue was German and that he started to learn the Croatian language only at the age of 21, have been repeated for a whole century in lexicons, encyclopaedias and musico-historical surveys.
This article focuses on the complex relationships between several layers of Kuhač’s appearance, both in his physical and historical existence and in the world of ideas, i.e. of his identity (or identities) in its (or their) totality. Apart from their primarily philosophical and mathematical roots, determinants of identity are mostly discussed today within the areas of individual and social psychology, social sciences and cultural studies. In Kuhač’s case the focal points seem to be the areas of individual and social psychology, i.e. relation to self-image, the mental model of one’s own self and self-esteem. In this, cognitive psychology dealing with the capacity for self-reflection and the awareness of self is especially applicable. Kuhač exemplified a typical psychodynamic model, confirming the processuality of his ego-identity formation across his lifespan. Moreover, the series of stages in which his identity was formed were responses to more or less sophisticated challenges, due to immediate or wider social circumstances that were in their background. Within the social psychology area, Kuhač was undoubtedly imbued with an outstandingly strong impetus for exploration and committed uncompromisingly to his self-chosen role of the inventor of ‘comparative musicology’ as a means of affirmation of indigenous Slavic, South- Slavic and Croatian folk music — which theoretically forms the type of the identity achievement character.
Two other issues of interest in this area deal with one’s engagement in discrimination and the identity formation strategies. While identifying himself with the strong tendency for affirmation of ‘Slavness’, ‘South-Slavness’ or ‘Croatian-ness’ in both music and the corresponding cultural habitude at large, Kuhač's sense of such distinctiveness did not declaratively discriminate the ‘Otherness’, except for ‘German-ness’. This issue could well touch upon the very core of Kuhač’s supposed deep psychological conflict: the conceptually orientated and consciously-emotional pro-Slavic feelings vs. ideologically conditioned and subconsciously rejected anti-German feelings.
Concerning the identity formation strategies, dealing with one’s adaptation to the social world, the typology includes several types of different psychological, personality and social manners of individual behaviour, in which one can easily recognize Kuhač as a ‘Guardian’- and a ‘Resolver’-type.
Other concepts attempt to capture the dynamic and fluid qualities of human social self-expression, suggesting identity as a process, and taking into account the reality of diverse and ever-changing social experience, thus proclaiming identity to be a volatile, flexible and abstract phenomenon. Indeed, Kuhač’s ideological fluctuation between early pan-Slavic, later pan-South-Slavic and final prevailingly Croatian orientations is easily recognizable, but should be brought into juncture with certain events in the broader social, political and cultural spheres of Zagreb, Croatia, Hungary and the Habsburg Empire at large.
Concerning cultural identity, the main determinants in relation to race, history, religious beliefs, aesthetics and some other issues in this regard display a non-questionable identity relation between Kuhač’s starting and ending points. Other important cultural identifiers such as language, for example, form part and are more closely connected with another, stricter issue — national identity. Here, the question of original ethnicity did not represent a decisive factor in creating and experiencing one’s identity, i.e. that the warped nationalistic "Blut-und-Boden" theory from later times failed to gain ground either in the majority of theories and practices of the early national movement of 19th century Croatia, or in this case in the identity of F. Ks. Kuhač.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

96178

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/96178

Publication date:

23.11.2012.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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