| The purpose of this dissertation is the exploration of the relationship between painting, music, and literature in some selected novels of Vicente Blasco Ibanez. The fundamental similarity between the two arts and literature is established through the similar function of their basic units. Colors, notes, and words are considered the raw materials or signs by which the artists, the composers, and the writer create their works. It is by looking at the relationships of painting, music, and literature from this viewpoint of structure that the exploration of the ways in which the three disciplines interact as sign systems is made.;A conceptualization of an interdisciplinary sign which combines painting and literature is presented in four of Blasco Ibanez's novels: La barraca, Flor de mayo, Canas y barro, and La maja desnuda. The common ground of music and literature is established in three of his novels: Entre naranjos, Arroz y tartana and La catedral. In the novels, the manner in which a pictoric sign or a musical sign can operate within the literary text, is examined. In attempting to define how these signs can operate within the literary text, the distinction established by Roman Jakobson between two axis along which a linguistic sign may function is used. A vertical or metaphoric axis of selection and a horizontal or metonymic axis of combination are demonstrated in each novel. The metaphoric use of painting and music in the novels is studied as a substitution of one co-existent idea for another. The metonymic axis relies on the association and combination of painting and music and the narrative of the literary works.;The literary utilization of painting is presented through the works of Goya, Benlliure, Sorolla, and Picasso. The weaving of music into the texts is established through the music of Wagner, Berlioz and Beethoven.;Rather than relying on the separation of the arts, the main focus of the dissertation relies in their union. The novel becomes infused with, rather than being a referent for, painting or music. |
