Ernest J. Gaines by Conversations (retail)

Author:Conversations (retail)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Influence of Multi-Art Forms on the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines

Marcia Gaudet and Darrell Bourque / 2002

From Interdisciplinary Humanities 20:1 (2003): 76–92. Reprinted with permission.

This interview was conducted on December 17, 2002, at the home of Ernest Gaines, near the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus. At the time, Gaines, Gaudet, and Bourque had been friends and colleagues in the UL Lafayette English Department for over twenty years.

DARRELL BOURQUE: That whole idea of influence or use or whatever you want to call it is really broad. I mean, to a large extent any of us who are writers or musicians or visual artists are all influenced by the larger culture that we encounter. But what we could do in this particular set of interviews is to ask some more specific questions about how artistic expression impacts a particular imagination. As we’ve talked to you over the years informally and in other essays or interviews that you’ve given, you know, there are instances where you talk about the way in which you listened to Joyce, read Joyce, read Turgenev, loved the work of Vincent van Gogh, and so forth. And so in a lot of ways, I think that’s one of the reasons why your name immediately came up for me is because I know that as you’ve talked through the years, you’ve touched on some of those ideas. But I was wondering, Ernie, who would you say is a nonliterary artist who has maybe had an impact on you as a writer or as an artist yourself? Are there any people who come to mind?

ERNEST J. GAINES: A nonliterary artist?

DB: Right, either a musician or—

EJG: Well, I’ve listened to music all my life, all my adult life I should say, and especially the classical music, symphonies as well as chamber music. I like to listen to jazz music, a lot of jazz music, of course. And a lot of blues, a lot of spirituals. Pop music. And I think without knowing how directly it’s influenced me, I think it has influenced me. I think I’ve taken from so many different artists that it’s hard for me to pinpoint it to one particular musician. Although I’ve listened to pieces of music, like the New World Symphony of Dvorak, and because of the motifs or themes of spirituals and themes in the symphony, it’s awakened something in me.

MARCIA GAUDET: I want to go back to what you said sixteen years ago. You said at that time that music helped you develop as a writer, and while writing Miss Jane Pittman, you played Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. You also said that some of the best descriptions of things, especially dealing with blacks, have been in music. They have been described better by musicians, especially the great blues singers like Bessie Smith, Josh White, and Leadbelly. And also in jazz music—a repetition of things, understatement, playing around the note.

EJG: Right, right. Yes, I agree. Bessie Smith’s “Backwater Blues,” and I feel that

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