This thesis investigates the connections between music, mood and notions of ‘attunement’ in Samuel Beckett’s early novels Murphy and Watt. It considers the intersection between ideas of music in these novels and their philosophical underpinnings, focusing specifically on the concept of melancholia. Throughout western history, melancholia has been associated with intellectual or artistic inspiration. This thesis argues that Beckett’s recourse to ideas of music in his early work draws on and critiques this aspect of the cultural configuration of melancholia.
Part One considers the use of music and tuning in Murphy. It argues that Beckett’s musical references animate the (often comic) exploration of the nature and limits of different forms of knowledge in relation to the insights produced by the melancholic disposition. In doing so, Part One draws out the implications of Beckett’s creative engagement with key literary, philosophical and musical sources – especially Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy, the musical theories of Jean-Phillipe Rameau, and the technicalities of musical tuning in Pythagorean philosophy, subsequently reworked by Schopenhauer.
Broadening the exploration of ideas of tuning, Part Two addresses how the idea of ‘attunement’ (which is encompassed by Heidegger’s term ‘Stimmung’, denoting one’s orientation to the world through mood) brings into view the affective quality of Watt. It considers the text in relation to the epistemic feeling states associated with melancholia and demonstrates how Beckett draws on and critiques intersecting musical and philosophical discourses of ‘harmony’ – especially in the work of Leibniz – so as to explore alternative conceptions of attunement rooted in embodiment. As such, Part Two of this thesis attempts to reconfigure our understanding of the way in which Beckett’s work can be understood as musical. Overall, by exploring the epistemic affective states associated with music and melancholia in Beckett’s early novels, this thesis contributes to a wider understanding of the role played by music in modernist literature.
