Beethoven’s Ninth in a Clockwork Orange

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BEETHOVEN’S NINTH IN A CLOCKWORK ORANGE RESUMO: O presente artigo, originalmente produzido pela autora como requisito para aprovação em uma das disciplinas de Mestrado, visa analisar a presença e função da música clássica – mais especificamente a Nona Sinfonia de Beethoven – na obra literária A Clockwork Orange (Laranja Mecânica), do escritor inglês Anthony Burgess. Na tentativa de traçar as possíveis associações entre Música e Literatura, lança-se mão da opinião de estudiosos da área, como Steven Paul Scher. A relação entre música e narrador (nesse caso, um adolescente agressivo, cujo bom gosto artístico surpreende o leitor) é investigada aqui, bem como a maneira com que as mudanças no enredo e as variações estruturais da sinfonia mostram-se complementares. Palavras-chave: Música e Literatura. Beethoven. Laranja Mecânica. In 1962, Anthony Burgess published the book that later on proved to be his most polemic piece of work, A Clockwork Orange. Famous not only because the innovative manner in which it deals with language, the novel brings another distinguished element: the use of music in the plot. And, as we are going to try to show here, this element plays an important part in the story. The story takes place in a repressive and totalitarian futuristic England. The narrator and main character is Alex, a smart but cruel boy who, together with the gang he leads (formed by Pete, Dim and Georgie), shocks the passive British society by committing violent crimes. This fifteen-year-old tells the story using a slang (also coined by Anthony Burgess) called Nadsat and spends his days at home, listening to classical music, or with his friends, drinking drugged milk (which was milk plus “vellocet”, “synthemesc” or “drencrom”) at the Korova Milkbar, a place they leave only to assault, beat or rape people – just for fun. During one of these events, Alex is
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