Sirens, Narrative Ethics, and Christina Rosenvinge's ‘Mi vida bajo el agua’

Abstract

This article examines the historical representation of the Siren myth and how it is employed by Spanish musician Christina Rosenvinge in her song ‘Mi vida bajo el agua’ (2011) (‘My life under water’) and its music video. Rosenvinge criticizes various moral beliefs attached to the myth, and this article's focus is specifically on these beliefs, which are analysed using a narrative ethics approach. This field aims to understand how narratives take shape and are repeated in different forms, thus enabling us to transform our understanding of the previous comprehension of the narrative. The methodological frame of narrative ethics is connected to feminist theories and the field of gender history in this article, which provides an opportunity to examine the changing meanings and beliefs around the Siren myth over time in an ethically significant way. This case study intends to illustrate the value of applying narrative ethics to research in cultural history since it helps us to understand how the narrative can articulate power relations and at the same time shape our understanding of the possible.