Aurality: Listening and Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Colombia (Sign, Storage, Transmission)

"In this audacious book, Ana María Ochoa Gautier explores how listening has been central to the production of notions of language, music, voice, and sound that determine the politics of life. Drawing primarily from nineteenth-century Colombian sources, Ochoa Gautier locates sounds produced by different living entities at the juncture of the human and nonhuman. Her "acoustically tuned" analysis of a wide array of texts reveals multiple debates on the nature of the aural. These discussions were central to a politics of the voice harnessed in the service of the production of different notions of personhood and belonging. In Ochoa Gautier's groundbreaking work, Latin America and the Caribbean emerge as a historical site where the politics of life and the politics of expression inextricably entangle the musical and the linguistic, knowledge and the sensorial"--Page 4 of cover.;Introduction: the ear and the voice in the lettered city's geophysical history -- On howls and pitches -- On popular song -- On the ethnographic ear -- On vocal immunity -- Epilogue: the oral in the aural. Annotation In this audacious book, Ana María Ochoa Gautier explores how listening has been central to the production of notions of language, music, voice, and sound that determine the politics of life. Drawing primarily from nineteenth-century Colombian sources, Ochoa Gautier locates sounds produced by different living entities at the juncture of the human and nonhuman. Her "acoustically tuned" analysis of a wide array of texts reveals multiple debates on the nature of the aural. These discussions were central to a politics of the voice harnessed in the service of the production of different notions of personhood and belonging. In Ochoa Gautier's groundbreaking work, Latin America and the Caribbean emerge as a historical site where the politics of life and the politics of expression inextricably entangle the musical and the linguistic, knowledge and the sensorial Contents 8 Preface and Acknowledgments 10 Introduction. The Ear and the Voice in the Lettered City’s Geophysical History 16 Chapter 1. On Howls and Pitches 46 Chapter 2. On Popular Song 92 Chapter 3. On the Ethnographic Ear 138 Chapter 4. On Vocal Immunity 180 Epilogue. The Oral in the Aural 222 Notes 230 References 246 Index 267 Ochoa Gautier's groundbreaking book draws primarily from nineteenth-century Colombian sources to explore how listening has been central to the production of notions of language, music, voice, and sound.