The Musicalization of Fiction: A Study in the Theory and History of Intermediality (review)

In his latest book, The Musicalization of Fiction: A Study in the Theory and History of Intermediality, Werner Wolf continues his program of examining musical elements in narrative. He coedited the proceedings of the First International Conference on Word and Music Studies (Graz 1997) with his colleagues Steven Paul Scher and Walter Bernhart. From that conference paper and from seminars on interart relationships, or to use his term, "intermediality," Wolf has constructed a theory of imitation of music in fiction. Aldous Huxley's term "musicalization of fiction" from the 1928 novel Point Counter Point serves to qualify the broader term of intermediality. Wolf evaluates the term here within 19th and 20th century Anglo-Irish fiction, to claim that intermediality describes a transfer process of structure and aesthetic intention from music to fiction.