Alejo Carpentier and the Musical Text

Katia Chornik

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Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 7

Legenda

11 October 2015  •  148pp

ISBN: 978-1-909662-17-9 (hardback)  •  RRP £80, $110, €95

SpanishFiction

This book has now been withdrawn from sale for rights reasons.

The Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier (1904–1980), a Cervantes-Prize laureate, is widely known for his novels The Kingdom of this World and The Lost Steps, and for coining the notion of ‘the real marvellous’ (now better known as ‘magic realism’). Carpentier’s lesser known activity in music as a researcher, radio and record producer, concert promoter and writer of song lyrics and libretti profoundly shaped his fiction, in which he incorporated music extensively, more than any other Latin American writer of his time. Chornik’s study focuses on Carpentier’s writings from a wide music scholarship perspective, bridging intermediality and intertextuality through an examination of music as formative, as form, and as performed. Among her contributions is her English translation and analysis of Carpentier’s text ‘The Origins of Music and Primitive Music’, the repository of ideas for The Lost Steps, published here for the first time. Chornik’s study will appeal to scholars and students in literary studies, cultural studies, musicology and ethnomusicology, and to a specifically interdisciplinary readership.

Katia Chornik is Leverhulme Early-Career Fellow at the University of Manchester.

Reviews:

  • ‘Como declara la autora, este ensayo se orienta a muy variados lectores potenciales: estudiosos de la obra de Carpentier, tanto desde el punto de vista estrictamente literario como desde el ángulo de la musicología. Pero su carácter explicativo y la transparencia de su prosa lo hacen asequible también a aquellos que de manera general disfrutan la obra de nuestro novelista... Ya desde este primer capítulo se evidencia el rigor de la investigadora, la amplitud de la bibliografía y de la documentación consultada y la agudeza con la que penetra en dichos textos.’ — Fundación Carpentier online, 18 January 2016)
  • ‘The results of her research and scholarly publications on Carpentier, has made of her a source of consultation by other credited scholars on the subject... The author makes great contributions to Carpentier’s long list of scholarly studies... This is an excellent contribution to the vast scholarship dedicated to the works of Carpentier and his peculiar understanding of musicology, literature and musical forms.’ — Rafael E. Saumell, Bulletin of Latin American Research 36.4, October 2017, 556–557 (full text online)
  • ‘A unique contribution... useful for further scholarly research on Carpentier.’ — Alira Ashvo-Muñoz, Latin American Music Review 39.1, Spring/Summer 2018, 127-29

Bibliography entry:

Chornik, Katia, Alejo Carpentier and the Musical Text, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures, 7 (Legenda, 2015)

First footnote reference: 35 Katia Chornik, Alejo Carpentier and the Musical Text, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures, 7 (Legenda, 2015), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Chornik, p. 47.

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

Bibliography entry:

Chornik, Katia. 2015. Alejo Carpentier and the Musical Text, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures, 7 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Chornik 2015: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Chornik 2015: 21.

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

This Legenda title was first published by Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing but rights to it are now held by Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge.

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Permanent link to this title:

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