James Joyce and Absolute Music

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Drawing on draft manuscripts and other archival material, James Joyce and Absolute Music, explores Joyces deep engagement with musical structure, and his participation in the growing modernist discourse surrounding 19th-century musical forms. Michelle Witen examines Joyces claim of having structured the Sirens episode of his masterpiece, Ulysses, as a fuga per canonem, and his changing musical project from his early works, such as Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Informed by a deep understanding of music theory and history, the book goes on to consider the pure music of Joyces final work, Finnegans Wake. Demonstrating the importance of music to Joyce, this ground-breaking study reveals new depths to this enduring body of work.

Reviews

Witen shows herself to be a formidable textual scholar. She is also a wonderful reader of the Sirens episode, suggesting that the episode itself has a voice. * James Joyce Literary Supplement *
A densely argued examination ... For those readers who may not understand the notion of absolute music or even know what a fugue is, Witen explains her terms carefully and lucidly. * Times Literary Supplement *
The scholarly heft of Witens scrupulous archival work and detailed intellectual history will offer powerful categories ... for understanding the textures of Joyces art. * The Review of English Studies *
This monograph bodes well for the health and vigor of Joyce studies as a worldwide pursuit now on the threshold of its second century! * Literary Research *
Fascinating and far-reaching ... Witen makes what could be a narrow study into something agile, expansive, and revealing. * James Joyce Quarterly *
Witen, by situating Joyce in contemporary theories of music, unravelling his manuscript notes to parse the intentions and achievement of the 'Sirens' chapter of Ulysses, and showing how 'Sirens' continues to echo through the rest of the novel has written a book that anyone interested in Joyce will want to read. This is a significant contribution to Joyce studies. * Ron Bush, Senior Fellow, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK *
James Joyce and Absolute Music is an important contribution to debates about Joyces musical project. Witens competence as a musical historian and her dexterous use of archival sources are the building blocks of a well-researched study convincingly demonstrating the importance of non-referential music for Joyces composition practices. * Vike Martina Plock, Associate Professor of English, University of Exeter, UK *

Author Bio

Michelle Witen is Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellow at the University of Basel, Switzerland.