Resonant Alterities: Sound, Desire, and Anxiety in Non-Realist Fiction (Cultural and Media Studies)

»Resonant Alterities« bridges the gap between sound studies and literary criticism. A queer ghost story by Vernon Lee, an occultist novel of psychic adventure by Algernon Blackwood, a dystopian science fiction tale by J.G. Ballard and a post-traumatic short novel by Don DeLillo are its primary objects of analysis. Each is explored within the context of its contemporary cultural debates on sound. Meanwhile, all four theory-enriched readings focus on intersecting and desire-laden processes of meaning making, knowledge production and subject formation. Focal points are aurally/audio-visually structured phenomena expressive of both collective and individual anxieties. Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Sound Studies – An Interdisciplinary Field Literary Sound Studies Resonant Alterities Haunted by Sound:Vernon Lee, “A Wicked Voice” Introduction Resonant Texts Literary Soundscapes Implied Sound Discursive Echo Chamber Idolatrous Sounds Scandalously Effeminate – Meltingly Foreign Sedimented Anxieties Desiring the Vocal Phallus Sound is Power:Algernon Blackwood, The Human Chord Introduction Fin de Siècle Occultism On Vibration: Sound in Occultism On Vibration: Sound in Occult Fiction Occultist Science – Scientific Occultism Dissolved Division First Identity Experiment: Voice Second Identity Experiment: Pattern Partial Evocation Names as Words of Power First Scene of Uttering: the Dangers of Calling Vocal Technique Between Occultism & Science Second Scene of Uttering: the Bliss of Being Called The Name of God Noise, Silence and Oedipus:J.G. Ballard, “The Sound Sweep” Introduction Sonic Waste & Sonic Weapons Noise, the Avant-Garde & Ultrasonic Music Noise Technology Playing With Tradition Ultrasonic Music & Muzak Ultrasonic Music & Silence Cruel Mothers, Cruel Crowds Hate Speech The Voice as Ambivalent Object Auditory Hallucination & Vocal Jouissance Air To Sounds, Sounds To Words:Don DeLillo, The Body Artist Introduction First Failure of comNmuOnicIatiSonE: What? Second Failure of comNmuOnicIatiSonE: The Noise Noise – Voice – Chant The Visual & The Aural – Legacies of Modernism Second Person Narration & Self-Awareness Voice – Gender – Loss Sonic Symptom Aural Fort/Da Gender – De-Gendering – Empowerment Conclusion Bibliography »Resonant Alterities« bridges the gap between sound studies and literary criticism. A queer ghost story by Vernon Lee, an occultist novel of psychic adventure by Algernon Blackwood, a dystopian science fiction tale by J.G. Ballard and a post-traumatic short novel by Don DeLillo are its primary objects of analysis. Each is explored within the context of its contemporary cultural debates on sound. Meanwhile, all four theory-enriched readings focus on intersecting and desire-laden processes of meaning making, knowledge production and subject formation. Focal points are aurally/audio-visually structured phenomena expressive of both collective and individual anxieties. Literature,Culture,Theory,Sound,Perception,Vernon Lee,Algernon Blackwood,J.G. Ballard,Don DeLillo,British Studies,American Studies,General Literature Studies,Literary Studies Long description:>>Resonant Alterities