本文是一篇英语毕业论文，论文认为《阿姆斯特丹》的显性音乐主题化展现了克利夫内心，突出了他鄙视堕落又选择堕落的双重人格；小说对奏鸣曲式的借鉴阐释了其“死亡”和“堕落”的主题；贝多芬《欢乐颂》的“唤起”作用和作为主导动机的莫莉强调了克利夫对自由的渴望。
Chapter One THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: WERNER WOLF’S MUSICO-LITERARY INTERMEDIALITY
1.1 Definition of Intermediality
The word “intermediality” originates from “medium.” Before “intermediality” is defined, it is necessary to explain “medium” first. Since the term “medium” is abstract, different scholars have made diverse definitions of it. Marshall McL uhan thinks that “medium” has a very broad sense and believes “medium” is any extension of man (McLuhan 3). This definition is so broad that even clothing would become an individual medium. Fortunately, Nünning gives a narrower definition to “medium,” who thinks “medium” is applied to literature as a whole and also applies to institutional and technical “sub-media,” such as the theatre and the book (Wolf, 2018: 130). As for Marie-Laure Ryan, the definition of “medium” should include elements from what she calls “the transmissive definition” and “the semiotic definition” and combine these facets with the element of “cultural use” (qtd. in Wolf, 2018: 130).
Drawing on Marie-Laure Ryan’s views, Wolf believes that “medium” is a means of communication, which is a cultural practice. So, the “medium” has not only a cultural feature but also a particular technical feature (Wolf, 2020: 16). “Medium” includes not only traditional arts such as literature as a linguistic art but also newer forms of expression or communication such as photography, film and digital media.
1.2 Musico-Literary Intermediality
The word and music study as a discipline begins in the 1960s and is initially called an “interart” discipline. As the intermediality theory develops, many scholars advocate that word and music study should be included in intermediality study. The musico-literary intermediality study, a discipline of interdisciplinary study, is also receiving increasing attention and its influence is growing.
Calvin S. Brown, an American semantic scholar, is one of the essential founders of the interdisciplinary study of literature and music. No systematic exploration of word and music exists before his publishment of Music and Literature: A comparison of the Arts in 1948. This book provides a rough framework for subsequent research which includes the similarities and differences between music and literature, the collaboration of music and literature in vocal music, and the mutual influence between music and literature.
Moreover, Steven Paul Scher, an American literature educator, develops Brown’s research. He divides the word and music study into three forms. The first form is music and literature, and “vocal music” is mainly researched in this form. The second form is music in literature which Scher categorizes into three situations: word music, verbal music and formal and structural analogies. This kind of category plays a significant role in Wolf’s research. The third form is literature in music. Scher’s research provides the basic theoretical framework for subsequent studies on musico-literary intermediality.
Chapter Two EXPLICIT THEMATIZATION OF MUSIC IN AMSTERDAM
2.1 Ian McEwan and Music
Wolf thinks that if an author shows his or her interest in music in his or her letters or essays, which can be used as one form of explicit thematization of music— “contextual thematization” (Wolf, 1999: 56).
On Chesil Beach is McEwan’s “first attempt at using music as a marker of character and also as a vehicle of misunderstanding. Edward’s love of rock and roll and Florence’s love of the classical repertory are part of their mutual incomprehension” (Roberts 195). Chapter One of this novel reveals Florence’s identity as a violinist and her love of string quartets. In Chapter Two, McEwan uses many words to describe Florence’s passion for string quartets: practicing five hours a day, listening to five chamber recitals in a row a week, and working backstage at the concert hall as a part-time job. Then in Chapter Three, stream-of-consciousness is employed to link Florence’s thoughts on her wedding night to the beginning of the Mozart Quintet, showing Florence’s fear and disgust of her wedding night. Chapter Four flashes back to the main characters’ time together after confirming their relationship, showing their gap through music and suggesting the root of their tragedy. Florence is passionate about the quartet while Edward has no interest in classical music. In Chapter Five, after the divorce, Edward’s interest in classical music fades away, and he is devoted to rock music while Florence succeeds in playing in a quartet. In this novel, music is essential to reflect the characters’ personalities, reveal their inner worlds, and influence the story’s development.
2.2 The Story of Composer Clive
Clive, the protagonist of Amsterdam, is a composer commissioned by the government to create the Millennial Symphony. In the novel, music is an essential element of expressing his inner thoughts and personality.
In Chapter One, at the funeral of his former lover Molly, two sentences are used to describe how Clive wants to leave the funeral to continue his work. After Clive and Vernon discuss Molly’s terrible way of death and their disgust for Geroge, Molly’s husband, Clive thinks “all he wanted now was the warmth, the silence of his studio, the piano, the unfinished score and to reach the end” (McEwan 6). Then, when the foreign minister Garmony asks Clive about the progression of the Millennial Symphony, he thinks again, “in the warmth of his studio he would be in shirtsleeves, working on the final pages of this symphony, whose premiere was only weeks ago. He had already missed two deadlines and he longed to be home” (McEwan 14). Both of the two sentences contain the Millennial Symphony and Clive’s creation studio. The two repetitive sentences concerning music serve as an intermedial symbol to express Clive’s character. From the phrases like “the unfinished score,” “the final pages of this symphony,” “missed two deadlines” and “longed to be home,” it can be seen that Clive is worried about composing the Millennial Symphony. Moreover, Clive is eager to leave because he does not want to stay with people who do not care about Molly. He thinks they are “like cadavers jerked upright to welcome the newly dead” (McEwan 9). He feels that he is the only one who misses Molly. He does not want to be or to be with one of the persons who are not sincere.
Chapter Three IMPLICIT IMITATION OF MUSIC IN AMSTERDAM..........25
3.1 Musicalization of Rhythm................................ 25
3.1.1 Language Rhythm: Acoustics of “Word Music” ....................... 26
3.1.2 Narrative Rhythm: Imitation of Musical Tempo ....................... 28
Chapter Four FUNCTIONS OF MUSICALIZATION OF AMSTERDAM ....................................... 44
4.1 Narrative Functions ................................. 44
4.1.1 Foreshadowing the Development of the Plot ............................. 44
4.1.2 Creating Defamiliarization .............. 47
CONCLUSION ........................................... 55
Chapter Four FUNCTIONS OF MUSICALIZATION OF AMSTERDAM
4.1 Narrative Functions
In the explicit thematization of music in Amsterdam, Clive’s imagination of musical melody is a narrative medium that foreshadows the development of the plot and creates defamiliarization.
4.1.1 Foreshadowing the Development of the Plot
The novel contains many of Clive’s imaginations of composing the Millennial Symphony, and each of his imaginations foreshadows the direction of the storyline. For example, in the first section of Chapter One, at Molly’s funeral, Clive’s imagination of the Millennial Symphony is:
There was something seriously wrong with the world for which neither God nor His absence could be blamed. Man’s first disobedience, the Fall, a falling figure, an oboe, nine notes, ten notes. Clive had the gift of perfect pitch and heard them descending from G. (McEwan 4)
Clive was losing the sensation in his feet, and as he stamped them the rhythm gave him back the ten-note falling figure, ritardando, a cor anglaise, and rising softly against it, contrapuntally, cellos in mirror image. Her face in it. The end. (McEwan 6)
CONCLUSION
McEwan is a talented novelist who is interested in music and cleverly combines literature with music in his Amsterdam, a Booker Prize-winning novel. In writing the novel, he describes composer Clive as the protagonist and adopts many musical techniques, which achieves the explicit thematization and implicit imitation of music in the novel.
The explicit thematization of music in the novel is reflected in the story of Clive’s composition of the Millennial Symphony and his views on musicians. Through the analysis of explicit thematization of music, readers can understand that Clive is no longer a pure egoist and morally depraved person, and his moral depravity is inextricably related to the depravity of society. They can also feel Clive’s helplessness when reading his interior monologues. Thus, they can have a good understanding of Clive’s dual personality of despising depravity yet choosing depravity.
Furthermore, the novel subtly imitates music in various aspects. The language rhythm of Amsterdam imitates the sound rhythm of music, and its narrative rhythm imitates the tempo of music. Both rhythms realize the musicalization of the rhythm of the novel. Moreover, the structure of Amsterdam is also related to music. Regarding macro-structure imitation, the story begins with death and ends with death, which imitates the ABA pattern of sonata form, thus highlighting the themes of “death” and “depravity.” Besides, the recurrence of Molly in the novel is an imitation of the leitmotiv in musical technique, drawing reader’s attention to Clive’s pursuit of freedom.
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