This study establishes that the lyricism of Mary Webb's early prose and poems has been enhanced in Precious Bane and her other five novels. In the study music is used as an analog to establish connections between the aural effect of Webb's narratives and structural techniques that are seen to be musical. / Webb achieves the effects of music in narrative by means of onomatopoeia, silence, motival repetition and change, varied rhythm and tempo, crescendo to climax, and large formal elements generally understood to create coherence. There are literary changes in tone analogous to harmonic shifts, resolved dissonances, rhythmic variation--devices habitually employed by the composer. / In the absence of a statement of specific intent to create a "musical" work, Webb's novels nevertheless manifest this quality because she expresses an imagistic vision of reality. All her novels are complex, poetic and dense with allusive meaning. Hence they point beyond themselves as does music in its capacity to be endlessly evocative. Webb's prose is improvisatory in its immediacy yet structurally unified on several levels. By means of near and far vision she incorporates both the displaced image (a Webb hallmark), and the suggestion of general three part form whose musical analogy is the double concerto for soloists and orchestra. Webb's consistent use of pairs of characters over a stable English rural background makes possible interplay in plot and characterization that suggests solo and orchestral dialogue. Between the poles of poetic detail and implicit large musical structure is a continual oscillation or transformation; this displacement followed by a new order is the essence of music and narration, tending toward unity and coherence. / The critical approach used in this study is seen to have wider application beyond what is implied in the choice of one author. The capacity of lyric prose to transcend its medium and suggest the condition of another art form is evident in Webb's narratives as referential meaning gives way to an aural, aesthetic state. Her use of language calls attention to itself, and in this Webb is an artist. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-12, Section: A, page: 3902. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75003 |
| Contributors | MAY, HELEN IRISH., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 461 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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