“... because a black is ugly” – Mozart’s Magic Flute and the figuration of the Other

Abstract

Critique of the representation of the other in Mozart's and Schikaneder's enlightened opera. This paper investigates the Magic Flute as a narrative of identity, which is all about the formation of the protagonist's male subjectivity and the role of the female in the process. Besides, the key figures of the buffoon Papageno and the black bad-guy Monostatos are being questioned, basing on a post-colonial approach.