Abstract
Monograph with a leading US University Press. A study which attempts to get to grips with not only what, but also how Mahler's music might 'mean'. It thus contributes new theoretical, historical and interpretative thinking to Mahler studies by analyzing the music in the context of the socio-political, the philosophical, the psychological and cognitive, the literary, the theatrical, and the cinematic, through the mediating theoretical lenses of genre/topic, metaphor, narrative, intermediality, and other aspects of critical theory. It is the combined axes of theory, history and critical/cultural interpretation that underline the innovative nature of the work and its developmental contribution to the field.