Music Transformation in Literature

This chapter explores the roles of music in literature and how the representation of musical sounds, forms, and genres transforms literature. The chapter surveys how music transformation is used in different literary contexts. Music transformation does not primarily aspire to transform literature into music. Instead, the intermedial relationship with music transforms literary narration and expression and expands the understanding of what kinds of experiences language and written texts can convey. Elleström’s concept of media transformation highlights how the representation of music and the transmediation of structures and ideas are always interrelated. Intermedial relationships with music appear as a performative tool to reach poetological aims. The transgressive potential of music is used not to explain but to express and perform complex relationships.