James Joyce’s Music Performed
The ‘Sirens’ Fugue in Experimental Re-Translation

Arianna Autieri

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Transcript 34

Legenda

  3 February 2026  •  338pp

ISBN: 978-1-839543-04-3 (hardback)  •  RRP £95, $120, €120

ISBN: 978-1-839543-05-0 (paperback, forthcoming)

ISBN: 978-1-839543-06-7 (JSTOR ebook)

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Fugues are complex musical compositions whose intricate contrapuntal texture enchants listeners and performers alike: but how can they be composed from written words, silent on the pages of a book? When James Joyce said that, in the ‘Sirens’ episode of Ulysses (1922), he aimed to write a fugue, he left his critics and readers wondering about the musical nature of the episode, as well as about the success of his musical intent. In this lucid interdisciplinary study, Arianna Autieri, a musician and translation scholar, interrogates Joyce’s ‘Sirens’ from the standpoint of the (re)translator, investigating how experimental translation can serve as a performative answer to Joyce’s famous musical conundrum.

Arianna Autieri is SNSF Ambizione Research Fellow at the Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften in Switzerland, where her research focuses on creativity, AI, and song translation.

Bibliography entry:

Autieri, Arianna, James Joyce’s Music Performed: The ‘Sirens’ Fugue in Experimental Re-Translation, Transcript, 34 (Legenda, 2026)

First footnote reference: 35 Arianna Autieri, James Joyce’s Music Performed: The ‘Sirens’ Fugue in Experimental Re-Translation, Transcript, 34 (Legenda, 2026), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Autieri, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Autieri, Arianna. 2026. James Joyce’s Music Performed: The ‘Sirens’ Fugue in Experimental Re-Translation, Transcript, 34 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Autieri 2026: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Autieri 2026: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

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