Narrative Interludes

"In a study spanning the latter half of the eighteenth century, Cuille brings the cultural discourse on music and musicians to bear on the works of Diderot, Cazotte, Beaumarchais, Charriere, Cottin, Krudener, and Stael. She turns attention from the representation of music to its moral repercussions, from aesthetic innovation to social resistance, and from national to gender politics. Juxtaposing pre-eminent and popular writers, Cuille reads their fictional works in light of their treatises on art and society, exploring the significance of musical tableaux that have previously fallen outside the scope of literary analysis but that revolutionized the form and function of music in the text."--Jacket.