Musique in the literature of Honore de Balzac

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370343
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: European literature
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
• Principal Investigator: Hakata Kaoru 東京外国語大学, 大学院総合国際学研究院, 准教授 (60368446)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: オノレ・ド・バルザック / 文学と音楽 / 口語と書き言葉 / ポリフォニー / フランス文学 / ヨーロッパ文学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We analyzed the role of music in the novels of Honore de Balzac. This study focuses on concept of the voice and the instruments, on the role of music in communication and a variety of transmission behavior. Citation of music in the novels contributes to the construction of character image and the system of symbols, to the implication of social relationships; it offers many important elements when the novels deploy the reflection on the intonation and silence included in the oral expression, transcribed into written language. The music realizes often a transparent communication but in other cases, it explains some visible or not visible thresholds. Also the possibility of more than one reading is open because the overlap of the discourse of music works and the literature. The evocation of contemporary music creates the polyphony and irony in Balzac’s novels.

Free Research Field

フランス文学