Analyzes two groups of "musical novels" -- novels that take music as a
model for their construction -- including jazz novels by Toni Morrison
and Michael Ondaatje, and novels based on Bach's Goldberg Variations.
What is a "musical novel"? This book defines the genre as musical not
primarily in terms of its content, but in its form. The musical novel
crosses medial boundaries, aspiring to techniques, structures, and
impressions similar tothose of music. It takes music as a model for its
own construction, borrowing techniques and forms that range from
immediately perceptible, essential aspects of music (rhythm, timbre, the
simultaneity of multiple voices) to microstructural (jazz riffs, call
and response, leitmotifs) and macrostructural elements (themes and
variations, symphonies, albums). The musical novel also evokes the
performance context by imitating elements of spontaneity that
characterize improvised jazz or audience interaction.
The Musical Novel builds upon theories of intermediality and semiotics
to analyze the musical structures, forms, and techniques in two groups
of musical novels, which serve as case studies. The first group imitates
an entire musical genre and consists of jazz novels by Toni Morrison,
Albert Murray, Xam Wilson Cartiér, Stanley Crouch, Jack Fuller, Michael
Ondaatje, and Christian Gailly. The secondgroup of novels, by Richard
Powers, Gabriel Josipovici, Rachel Cusk, Nancy Huston, and Thomas
Bernhard, imitates a single piece of music, J. S. Bach's Goldberg
Variations.
Emily Petermann is Assistant Professor of American Literature at the
University of Konstanz.