The apparent paradox of the sociology of genius. Mozart… a paradigmatic analysis of Norbert Elias’ insight

Abstract

Norbert Elias has become an indisputable referent of Sociology in the last decades. This essay overviews some of his main theoretical and methodological contributions by analyzing one of his first posthumous works: Mozart. Portrait of a genius (1993). The relevance of this book lies in the paradox that emerges directly from its title: indeed, is a sociological understanding of such an individual figure as a "genius" possible? Or even more, in what sense a work based on the analysis of an individual path, as Mozart's, may help us to understand the course of a particular society?. Throughout this essay I'll try to develop and answer these questions by showing the different sociological aspects of this work. In doing so, I'll relate some of the main thesis of Mozart... with a series of Elias' considerations about the sociological approach which were outlined in three of his major works: The court society, The civilizing process and What is sociology? I'll concentrate, in particular, in the discussion set by the theoretical and methodological approach of Elias against both the static and dichotomous conceptions of certain sociological schools and the historiography based on an individualized history of "great" men.