LMKB_a448 Intermediality: Theoretical Aspects and Relationships between Literature and Music

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2024
Extent and Intensity
0/1/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Petr Bubeníček, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Prof. Werner Wolf, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Providers of Specific teaching support
Mgr. Veronika Lískovcová (zapisovatel)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Petr Bubeníček, Ph.D.
Department of Czech Literature – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Veronika Bromová, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Czech Literature – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 22. 10. 10:00–13:40 B2.34, Wed 23. 10. 9:00–12:40 D21, Thu 24. 10. 9:00–12:40 C33
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 50 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 34/50, only registered: 0/50, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/50
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Poetry (or what we today term ‘literature’) and music used to be called ‘sister arts’. Indeed, there are manifold relationships between the two media/arts. Music can occur in literature in various ways and vice versa: works of literature can thematize music, they may be inspired by music, or attempt to transmit originally musical compositions (and, sometimes, vice versa); occasionally, literary texts may even appear to be ‘musicalized’; last but not least, literary texts can be combined with music in one work (for instance in songs or operas). In this seminar, we will explore a selection of the various forms and functions of the intermedial relationships between literature and music (transmediality plurimediality, intermedial transposition, and intermedial reference in particular) after some theoretical reflections: these will include the characteristic features of both arts (with an emphasis on their similarities and differences) as well as the concept of intermediality and its various forms. As I am an emeritus professor of English literature, English language texts will be in focus.
Learning outcomes
Exploring medial specificities of both literature and music; making the students aware of the various forms of musico-literary interrelations; making them acquainted with basics of intermediality theory. Exploring medial specificities of both literature and music; making the students aware of the various forms of musico-literary interrelations; making them acquainted with basics of intermediality theory.
Syllabus
  • 1. (22-10-2024-A)
  • 0. PRELIMINARY REMARKS: motivations for, and objects, aims and structure of, the seminar
  • 1. INTRODUCTION (I): INTERMEDIALITY THEORY AS AN APPROACH TO DISCUSSING ‘LITERATURE AND MUSIC’: terminology (‘medium’, ‘intermediality’); principal systematic forms of intermediality
  • 2. (22-10-2024-B)
  • 2. INTRODUCTION (II): TRANSMEDIAL COMPARISON OF LITERATURE AND MUSIC - TWO SISTER ARTS? – medial similarities and differences
  • 2.1. Medial similarities and differences concerning metareferentiality: a parody of Wordsworth, “Daffodils”, compared to a parody of the 18th-century symphony in W. A. Mozart, “Ein musikalischer Spaß” (a musical joke)
  • 2.2. Medial similarities and differences concerning narrativity: literary narrativity compared to R. Wagner, overture to Tannhäuser (time permitting)
  • 3. (23-10-2024-A)
  • 3. PLURIMEDIAL COMBINATIONS OF WORDS/LITERATURE AND MUSIC
  • 3.1. Lyrics and music in pop song (The Beatles, “Yesterday”)
  • 3.2. Literary text (extracts) and music in the ”Alan Parsons Project”: E. A. Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”
  • 4. (23-10-2024-B)
  • 4. INTERMEDIAL TRANSPOSITION - Literature inspiring instrumental (programme) music: P. I. Tchaikovsky, “Romeo and Juliet” (fantasy overture)
  • 5. (24-10-2024-A)
  • 5. INTERMEDIAL REFERENCE: thematization and imitation of music in literature 5.1. Traditional conceptions of music in poetry: J. Milton, “At a Solemn Musick”
  • 5.2. Evocation of music: E. M. Forster, Howards End, chap. 5 (evocation of parts of L. van Beethoven’s fifth symphony)
  • 5. (24-10-2024-B)
  • 5.3. Formal imitation of music in literature: the musicalization of fiction in V. Woolf, “The String Quartet”
  • 6. CONCLUSION
Literature
    recommended literature
  • Handbook Intermediality: Literature – Image – Sound – Music. Handbooks of English and American Studies 1. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015.
  • “Das Feld der Intermedialität im Überblick”. Klaus Maiwald in cooperation with Sabine Groll, eds. Intermedialität: Formen – Diskurse – Didaktik. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider, 2019. 23–47.
  • “Intermedial Iconicity in Fiction – Tema con variazioni”. Wolfgang G. Müller/Olga Fischer, eds. From Sign to Signing. Iconicity in Language and Literature 3. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2003. 339–360. Revised reprint: see above, I.2: Wolf 2018: 555–578.
  • FOLTINEK, Herbert und Christoph LEITGEB, eds. Literaturwissenschaft – intermedial, interdisziplinär. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2002.
  • Werner Wolf, ed., in collaboration with Katharina Bantleon and Jeff Thoss. The Metareferential Turn in Contemporary Arts and Media: Forms, Functions, Attempts at Explanation. Studies in Intermediality 5. Amsterdam/New York, NY: Rodopi, 2011.
  • BERNHART, W. a W. WOLF, eds. Word and Music Studies: Essays on the Song Cycle and on Defining the Field – Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Word and Music Studies at Ann Arbor, 1999. Word and Music Studies 3. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001.
  • Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory
  • WOLF, Werner. The Musicalization of Fiction: A Study in the Theory and History of Intermediality. IFAVW Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft 35. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999.
  • BERNHART, Walter, SCHER Steven Paul a Werner WOLF, eds. Word and Music Studies: Defining the Field. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Word and Music Studies at Graz, 1997. Word and Music Studies 1. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999.
  • BERNHART, Walter a Werner WOLF, eds. Self-reference in Literature and Music. Word and Music Studies 11. Amsterdam/New York, NY: Rodopi, 2010.
  • BERNHART, Walter, MAHLER, Andreas a Werner WOLF, eds. Immersion and Distance: Aesthetic Illusion in Literature and Other Media. Studies in Intermediality 6. Amsterdam/New York, NY: Rodopi, 2013.
  • BERNHART, Walter a Werner WOLF, eds. Essays on Literature and Music (1967–2004) by Steven Paul Scher. Word and Music Studies 5. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004.
  • BERNHART, Walter a Werner WOLF, eds. Framing Borders in Literature and Other Media. Studies in Intermediality 1. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006.
  • Intermedialität
  • WOLF, Werner. Selected Essays on Intermediality by Werner Wolf (1992–2014): Theory and Typology, Literature-Music Relations, Transmedial Narratology, Miscellaneous Transmedial Phenomena. Walter Bernhart, ed. Leiden/Boston: Brill-Rodopi, 2018.
  • Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory. Edited by David Herman - Manfred Jahn - Marie-Laure Ryan. 1st pub. in pbk. London: Routledge, 2008, xxix, 718. ISBN 9780203932896. info
  • Description in literature and other media. Edited by Werner Wolf - Walter Bernhart. New York: Rodopi, 2007, viii, 341. ISBN 9789042023109. info
  • Lexikon teorie literatury a kultury : koncepce / osobnosti / základní pojmy. Edited by Ansgar Nünning - Jiří Trávníček - Jiří Holý, Translated by Al. Vydání první. Brno: Host, 2006, 912 stran. ISBN 8072941704. info
Teaching methods
Lectures, reading, class discussion.
Assessment methods
oral colloquium
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
Teacher's information
Reading material/texts (to be prepared in advance):

W. Wordsworth, “Daffodils”

E. A. Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado” (short story)

J. Milton, “At a Solemn Musick”

V. Woolf, “The String Quartet” (short story)

Further material will be provided by means of photocopies.

A knowledge of Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, is presupposed as well as some familiarity with musical notation.

Full selected bibliography by seminar convener relevant to seminar is published in study materials.

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