Call for Book Chapters under Textxet: Studies in Comparative Literature (Scopus Indexed Book Series)

Title of the Book: In Musico-literary Contexts: Signs, Sounds, and Stories

Publisher: Brill

Deadline for Abstract Submission: 15/03/2025

Notification of Acceptance: 30/03/2025

Submission of Full Paper: 30/11/2025

Submission of Revised Papers: 20/12/2025

Editor: Barnashree Khasnobis

Contact Email: barnashree.kh@gmail.com

Music and literature share a symbiotic relationship with society and culture. Music and literature as independent artforms correspond in terms of societal representations and expressivities. In the field of arts, many scholars have asserted the commonality between music and literature. Semiotician like Naomi Cumming (2000) and Steven Paul Scher (2004) gave thoughtful attention on verbal language and musical expression specifying the semblance between music and literature. Semiotic properties and semantic values of language in music and vice-versa have pointed out the common structural dimensions of the two disciplines. The most common function of these two forms of art is communication through language. Lyrics of songs have been studied as poetry and poetic structure gives rise to music. Signs and the system of signification is done through sound, vis-a-vis in both music and literature. Music and literature can be consolidated as disciplines interacting with each other because they both emerge from a verbal and visual sign. Inspiration in drawing interpretative parallels between music and literature can be taken from the discourse of Piercian sign. Charles Sanders Pierce notes, “A sign, or representamen, is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It addresses somebody, that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developed sign. The sign which it creates I call the interpretant of the first sign” (Pierce, 1955, p. 99). The first interpretant sign in poetry has a relation to music through repetition, rhythm, meter, sequence, and dramatic climax. Both music and poetry, function through this process of organized sounds which are composed by the creator and reinterpreted by the audience. While decoding the array of organized signs and sounds in musico-literary traditions, their socio-cultural significance is determined. It is also during this interpretative process; cultural traditions are reiterated through forms of literature and music.

Influence of music on literature has remained a pivotal point in the socio-cultural analysis of music and literary works. There is an affinity between music and literature because of their sonic and linguistic functionality. Due to the organized behaviour of sounds, music is often sought in genres of literature and vice-versa, for instance, the genre of barahmasa folk music of India represents Indian folk culture and literary traditions. Similarly, European traditional folk ballads have roots in medieval poetry. Folk literature and folk music are intrinsically connected with the common thread of storytelling. One of the focal points of this book will be analysing the perception, reception, and re-production of folk culture through music compositions as poetry. By looking at the dialect, metaphors, and communication of cultural practices in music compositions as poems, significant knowledge can be attained on societies and their structures. Furthermore, studying the compositions of a particular music genre can offer optimum information about a land’s geography and social matrix contributing towards people’s traditions.

This book will be an attempt to engage with various genres of music compositions that carry forward the literary traditions. It will attempt at engaging with dynamic genres of tribal music depicted through fictions and nonfictions as reservoirs of knowledge for music cultures. Oral traditions and storytelling as part of literature through songs are mostly inspired from myths and legends among indigenous communities. One such tradition of music can be observed in the Navajo people who weaves stories through songs, which conveys daily lives and cultural customs, such as hunting rituals, weaving, ceremonial chants, resistance movements towards ecological change, and cultural values. In many cultures, songs of weaving and songs sung by women while engaged in domestic chores are part of oral and literary traditions. By looking into song texts and their social significance, histories of political revivals, and community building can also be known.

Songs can also become a healing force, a source of constant nourishment of mind and body. Apart from melody, semantics of songs play a crucial role in the attainment of pleasure, relaxation, or an outwardly experience. There are many fictions, nonfictions and poems that emphasize the role of music in people’s lives. Such literary works also share information about tribal cultures and their music, cultures of music consumption and their changes with time. Whether it is The String Quartet by Virginia Woolf or A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather, there is a wide range of literature that talks about the transformative power of music and consumption culture. Influence of music on 19th and 20th century English novels also illustrate the dominance of music in narratives. Nonfictions, such as, The Power of Black Music: Interpreting its History from Africa to the United States by Samuel A. Floyd Jr., Music of the Indigenous Peoples of North America edited by Charlotte Heath, and Songs of the Forest: The Folk of Alaska’s Native by Patricia K. Jenkins discuss historical significance and performance practices of various tribal music. The book will be contributing to the discourse of deep historical and cultural relations between music and literature, minimizing the boundaries between the two disciplines.

References

Bernhart, Walter and Wolf Werner (editors) (2004). Words and Music Studies: Essays on Literature and Music (1967-2004) by Steven Paul Scher. Rodopi.

Cumming, Naomi (2000). The Sonic Self: Musical Subjectivity and Signification. Indiana University Press.

Pierce, Charles Sanders (1955). Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs. Philisophical Writings of Pierce, Dover Publications, pp. 98-119.

Original contributions are invited in the following topics within 7000-8000 words as a word document (7thAPA format):

• Influence of folk traditions on music
• Comparative semiotics between genres of folklore and music
• Historical intersections between folklore and music
• Indigenous story-telling and mythologies through music
• Music as healing practice among tribes
• Reception and re-production of folk culture through music

Abstracts in 400-500 words with a brief bio (100 words) should be mailed as a single word document to barnashree.kh@gmail.com. The complete book is intended to be submitted for publication within March, 2026. Contract has been signed.

About the Editor: Dr. Barnashree Khasnobis is working as Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Kristu Jayanti College, Bengaluru. Her research works have appeared in Kalakalpa (Journal of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts), Comparative Literature: East & West (Taylor & Francis), and National Identities (Taylor & Francis). Her monograph, Bandish as Text: Re-reading Khayal Compositions by Sadarang and Adarang was published by Routledge, 2024.