Music abounds in twentieth-century Irish literature. Whether it be the 'thought-tormented' music of Joyce's 'The Dead', or the four-part threnody in Beckett's Watt, it is clear that the influence of music on the written word in Ireland is deeply significant. Samuel Beckett arguably went further than any other in the incorporation of musical ideas into his work. John McGrath discusses the ways in which Beckett utilized extreme repetition to create texts that operate and are received more like music. An investigation into how this Beckettian 'musicalized fiction' has been retranslated into contemporary music forms the second half of the book.

John McGrath is a lecturer in Music at University of Surrey.

1. Music and Literature 2. Repetition in Music and Literature 3. Musico-literary Interaction in Modern Ireland and the Musical Aesthetic of Samuel Beckett 4. Beckett's Semantic Fluidity: Repetition in the Later Work 5. Beckett and Feldman: Time, Repetition and the Liminal Space 6. Improvising Beckett: Chance, Silence and Repetition