SOURCE: "'Lohengrin, fils de Parsifal'," in Parody and Decadence: Laforgue's "Moralités légendaires," Ohio State University Press, 1989, pp. 128-47.

In the following essay, Hannoosh analyzes themes and symbols in "Lohengrin, fils de Parsifal, " especially as they relate to the function of parody in the story.

Laforgue's "Lohengrin," written during the height of wagnérisme in 1886, leaves no doubts as to the work on which it is based: Wagner's opera of the same name. The title contains the first parodic deformation, a qualifying epithet, which both undermines and affirms the relation of the story to the parodied work. This identifies the original, while simultaneously distinguishing the parody from it, and also indicates the Wagnerian source by the spelling of "Parsifal". Moreover, "fils de Parsifal" defines Lohengrin with respect to his famous father and thus reminds us directly that this parody, and parody in general, is a generation of...