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- Theorizing Sound Writing
An eclectic and experimental exploration of sound from the vantage point of writing
The study of listening—aurality—and its relation to writing is the subject of this eclectic edited volume. Theorizing Sound Writing explores the relationship between sound, theory, language, and inscription. This volume contains an impressive lineup of scholars from anthropology, ethnomusicology, musicology, performance, and sound studies. The contributors write about sound in their ongoing work, while also making an intervention into the ethics of academic knowledge, one in which listening is the first step not only in translating sound into words but also in compassionate scholarship.
Acknowledgments
Deborah Kapchan, The Splash of Icarus: Theorizing Sound Writing/Writing Sound Theory
I. WRITING SOUND THEORY
Suzanne G. Cusick, Musicology, Performativity, Acoustemology
J. Martin Daughtry, Acoustic Palimpsests
Michele Kisliuk, Writing the Magnified Musicking Moment
II. MEMOIR AND METAPHOR AS METHOD
Alex Waterman, Listening to Resonant Words
Tomie Hahn, Sound Commitments: Extraordinary Stories
David Henderson, Traffic Patterns
Carol Muller, In My Solitude: Jazz Song as "Sound Writing"
III. THEORIZING SOUND WRITING
Anne K. Rasmussen, Women Out Loud: Religious Performance in Islamic Indonesia
Katherine Johanna Hagedorn, "Where the Transcendent Breaks into Time": Toward a Theology of Sound in Afro-Cuban Regla de Ochá
Ana Pais, Almost Imperceptible Rhythms and Stuff Like That: The Power of Affect in Live Performance
IV. LISTENING AND WITNESS
Deborah Wong, Deadly Soundscapes: Scripts of Lethal Force and Lo-Fi Death
Deborah Kapchan, Listening Acts: Witnessing the Pain (and Praise) of Others
Michael Jackson, Afterword: Sound Properties of the Written Word
About the Contributors
Index
DEBORAH A. KAPCHAN is associate professor of performance studies at New York University. A Guggenheim fellow, she is the author of Gender on the Market and Traveling Spirit Masters, as well as numerous articles on sound, narrative, and poetics.
"The book explores the relationship of writing and aurality (the study of listening) in order to pursue two aims: It theorizes how to write about sound, and it uses its premise of listening to point toward compassionate scholarship."
~Sharon Harris Jeter, hastac
"Listen to how writing culture meets sound studies. These patient and passionate essays reveal critical stakes for research ethics and aesthetics. In doing so they stimulate resonant theoretical alliances between performance studies, media studies, musicology, and ethnomusicology."
~Steven Feld, , author of Sound and Sentimentand Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra
"Having come of age, Sound Studies can no longer pretend that writing about sound and experiencing sound belong to different orders of knowledge. The essays in this collection—performative, resonant, sonorous—show that sound, listening, and inscription have far more in common than is usually assumed. Theorizing Sound Writing takes Sound Studies to the next level."
~Veit Erlmann, author of Reason and Resonance
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