Invoking music in literature: the instrumental, the sonic, and the structural

This thesis seeks to demonstrate how we might use musical context as an interpretative
tool to offer new readings of literary works. It does this by exploring literary texts that
can be seen to invoke particular elements of music. The three main chapters each focus
on a different invocation of music in literature: the instrumental, the sonic, and the
structural. This thesis draws on broad aspects of musical, literary, and philosophical
theory, and applies these to critical readings of examples of literature.
Chapter one explores the shared creative and compositional processes of writing
music and literature. It looks at how creativity manifests in the art of writers and
composers and whether such a connection can have an impact on how audiences engage
with such work. This chapter also reflects on the relationship artists share with their tool
of artistic production, particularly how this relationship is presented in the work of
Wallace Stevens.
Chapter two considers the use of sound in theatre, suggesting that one may
interpret its presence as forming part of a broader semiotic system. Shakespeare’s
Troilus and Cressida is presented as a primary example of how trumpets can be used on
– and off – stage to convey action, and meaning, without dialogue.
Chapter three probes the fundamental connections between musical structure and
literary form. It looks at the historical conceptions of both media and maps how a shared
heritage can lead to a mutually productive relationship between distinct forms. It offers
perspectives on how considerations of musical structure may be effectively employed in
critical readings of literature, particularly in the poetry of Grace Hazard Conkling and
the prose of Angela Carter.
Ultimately, this thesis aims to demonstrate how one may use the musical
invocations of a literary work to produce a reading which challenges existing scholarship
or lays the foundations for an innovative interpretation of the text