The intersemiotic quotation: Music within literature

Abstract

This article, at the intersection of literature and music, examines the intersemiotic
links between these two artistic forms. The enquiry is limited to the presence of
music in literature and to the different forms that musical quotations may take. The
categories of quotation established within the framework of intertextual theory for
the relations between literary texts are confronted with the special case considered.
Through several examples, one sees that musical quotation includes the insertion of
scores or discs in a text (the latter of course unusual) or more often a verbalization.
The various types of verbalization can be reduced to four main intertextual modes:
commentary, ecphrasis, reference and “mise en abyme”.