De la música a la novela: El jazz en la construcción de El invierno en Lisboa de Antonio Muñoz Molina

Abstract

In El invierno en Lisboa, music and literature complement each other, to the extent that jazz shapes the construction of the novel. The music describes the characters, it underlies the literary structure, and it is manifest in various techniques employed in the text (repetitions, structures, rhythms). A transposition occurs between the trio of jazz musicians, who are part of the plot, and the sets, places and characters. As in jazz, over the basic music of each ensemble, the particular improvisation of each person is heard. Music is also one of the novel’s themes, with numerous extraliterary references to musicians and jazz songs. It is even present in time and in the narrative voices, bringing to light a past that is fading and ends as a musical composition with its last sounds. I propose an interdisciplinary approach to address the construction of the novel.