The Influence of Music on American Literature Since 1890: A History of Aesthetic Counterpoint

Music and literature are the so-called "sister arts," and since around 1890, many of the American writers who use music in their works have created their hybrid, musico-literary worlds by focusing on two or three of the following musical elements: counterpoint, Wagnerian music dramas, and player pianos. This work explores the changing American discourse as a contrapuntal rope consisting of three symbolic elements/threads interacting in a unique way in the periods of realism/naturalism, modernism, and postmodernism.