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PierreDubois
UniversityofTours,France
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1497-4039
MusicandtheGeorgianNovel,
ortheDivorceofAdamandEve
Abstract:TristramShandybyLaurenceSternecanbesaidtohaveinaugurated
anewerainthewaymusicwasreferredtoandusedintheeighteenth-century
Englishnovel.ThegrowingimportanceofmusicalallusionsinlateGeorgiannovels
paralleledtheriseoftheso-calledflageofsensibility.”Thedemiseoftheclassical
theoryoftheflsisterarts”inthecourseoftheeighteenthcenturyenabledmusic
tobecomeanautonomousartisticpractice.Itpromptedthedivorcebetween
poetryandmusicandconsequentlyencouragedthedevelopmentofinstrumental
music.Thishadadirectbearinguponthenewroleaccruingtomusicinthenovel.
Itcanbesuggestedthatthereisnotonlyadiference,butafundamentalgeneric
incompatibilityortensionbetweenmusicandtheliterarytextastheytrytoshare
acommonterritory.LateGeorgianwritersfeltthattheflnewsensibility”theystroveto
expressintheirtextscouldaptlybeexploredthroughreferencestomusicormusical
practice.However,theveryfactofmentioningmusicorofusingmusicaldevicesin
aprosetextinevitablycallsinquestionthenatureoftheliterarymediumitself.The
roleattributedtomusicinsidetheliterarytextdrivesthelatterawayfromitsusual
shores,towardsdangerouszonesthatthreatenitsnormalbalance.Evenasmusic
freeditselffromtheshacklesofimitationandbecamemoreandmoreautonomous
fromtheconstraintofhavingasitweretoflclothe”poetry,itacquiredagreaterrole
inthenoveland,doingso,ithighlightedtheexpressiveshortcomingsoflanguage.
Byinvitingmusicasakeycomponentintheirtexts,novelistsbothparadoxically
enrichedthemandendangered,orshowedthelimitationsoftheirownart.
Keywords:imitation,expression,sensibility,language,theGeorgiannovel,music
