Description
Book SynopsisThe musical play of forms and sounds seems initially to have little to do with the mimetic, representative function of the traditional narrative genres. This title presents a study that focuses on Samuel Beckett, Michel Leiris, and Robert Pinget, French avant-garde novelists whose use of music is particularly striking.
Trade Review"Carefully reasoned. . . . Difficult but rewarding. Highly recommended."—
Choice“A well-researched book likely to appeal to both scholars and students. Prieto’s style is clear and meticulous, and every key notion is explained…. [It] delivers a pertinent study of modernist literature, as well as a landmark for research on music in literature, laying a sound groundwork for analysis of other ‘musical’ postmodernist narratives.”—Jean-Luis Pautrot,
Comparative Literature“This kind of semiotic boundary crossing between music and literature is inherently metaphorical, but, as Prieto’s analyses of Beckett, Leiris, and Pinget show, these interart analogies provide valuable clues for bringing to light the unspoken assumptions, obscurely understood principles, and extra-literary aspirations that gave such urgency to the modernist quest to better represent the mind in action.”—
FabulaTable of ContentsList of Figures; Acknowledgements; IntroductionMusic, Mimesis, and MetaphorRobert Pinget and the Musicalization of FictionMusic and Autobiography (Leiris lyrique)Beckett, Music, and the Heart of ThingsMusic, Metaphysics, and Moral Purpose in LiteratureBibliography; Index
