Essays on Music and Language in Modernist Literature

This book explores the role of music as a source of inspiration and provocation for modernist writers. Considering modernist literature within a broad political, postcolonial, and internationalist context, it is an important intervention in the field of Words and Music studies. It expands the critical debate to include lesser-known writers alongside Joyce, Woolf, and Beckett, a wide-ranging definition of modernism, and the influence of contemporary music on modernist writers. From the rhythm of Tagore’s poetry to the influence of jazz improvisation, the tonality of traditional Irish music to the operas of Wagner, these essays reframe our sense of how music inspired Literary Modernism.