Listening between the Lines: Introduction: Exploring Interdisciplinarity between Music and Literature

Abstract

The current issue of Australian Literary Studies represents a significant departure for a journal that has characteristically worked within the boundaries of a single discipline, moreover one that has maintained an emphasis on Anglophone literary traditions. The articles that appear in this issue were all conceived as conference papers for a symposium held at Monash University in June 2014, entitled Listening between the Lines: exploring the relationship(s) between music and literature (hereafter LBTL). The symposium drew its topics from literary studies and musicology, and while such a blending might result in some methodological unfamiliarity for those not versed in both disciplines, the symposium's mandate emphasised the need for just such a methodological dialogue. Therefore, these essays may be regarded as reflecting an experimental approach to scholarship, where authors not only research texts that combine musical and literary elements, but also attempt to blend tried-and-tested methodologies with those that are relatively unfamiliar. While this interdisciplinary focus has resulted in articles that represent significant methodological departures for the journal, the dialogical focus has also resulted in a wider range of literatures being considered, from French and German to Argentinian and Iranian.