Music and Identity in Twentieth-Century Literature from Our America

Abstract

Offering a one-of-a-kind approach to music and literature of the Americas, this book examines the relationships between musical protagonists from Colombia, Cuba, and the United States in novels by writers such as Gabriel García Márquez, Alejo Carpentier, Zora Neale Hurston, and John Okada. A Note to the Reader ix Warming Up xi Overture 1 Part I First Movement: Numbers, Music, and the Reality of Gabriel García Márquez 21 Chapter 1 Exposition: Literary and Musical Consonances 25 Chapter 2 Development: Dissonant Confrontations 43 Part II Intermezzo: Musical Segmentalizing 61 Part III Second Movement: Meanwhile, on the Other Side of the Caribbean 77 Chapter 3 Theme: A lejo Carpentier Sets the Stage 81 Chapter 4 Variations: Hurston and Carpentier’s Caribbean Counterpoint 95 Part IV Third Movement: Stretching the Northern Boundaries of America 115 Chapter 5 Scherzo: ID Don’t Mean a Thing If It A in’t Got That Swing 125 Chapter 6 Rondo: John Okada Returns to America and Returns to America and Returns . . . 131 Part V Coda: More Possibilities for Discovering Music in American Literature 155 Exit Music: A Marvelous Future 167 Notes 177 Works Cited 195 Index 207