Chopin at the boundaries

by Jeffrey Kallberg

At once exalted and shadowy, Chopin cuts a curious figure in contemporary culture. A Pole working among Frenchmen, he exudes exoticism even as he partakes of European tradition. A male composer who wrote in "feminine" gnres like the nocturne for domestic settings such as the salon, he confuses our sense of the boundaries of gender. Central to our repertory, he nevertheless remains a marginalized figure. The complex and unsettling status of Chopin in our culture - what it means and how it came aboutis Jeffrey Kallberg's subject in this absorbing book. Combining social history, literary theory, musicology, and feminist thought. Chopin at the boundaries is the first book to situate Chopin's music historically within his native Polish and adopted French cultures and to demonstrate the powerful effects of these historical constructions on present experience.