Audiobooks, Literature, and Sound Studies

by Rubery; Matthew

• ISBN13: 9780415883528
• ISBN10: 0415883520
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This is the first scholarly work to examine the cultural significance of the "talking book" since the invention of the phonograph in 1877, the earliest machine to enable the reproduction of the human voice. Recent advances in sound technology make this an opportune moment to reflect on the evolution of our reading practices since this remarkable invention. Some questions addressed by the collection include: How does auditory literature adapt printed texts? What skills in close listening are necessary for its reception?What are the social consequences of new listening technologies? In sum, the essays gathered together by this collection explore the extent to which the audiobook enables us not just to hear literature but to hear it in new ways. Bringing together a set of reflections on the enrichments and impoverishments of the reading experience brought about by developments in sound technology, this collection spans the earliest adaptations of printed texts into sound by Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and other novelists from the late nineteenth century to recordings by contemporary figures such as Toni Morrison and Barack Obama at the turn of the twenty-first century. As the voices gathered here suggest, it is time to give a hearing to one of the most talked about new media of the past century.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Foreword	p. xiii
Introduction: Talking Books	p. 1
Sound Experiments
The Three-Minute Victorian Novel: Remediating Dickens into Sound	p. 25
A Library on the Air: Literary Dramatization and Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre	p. 44
The Audiographic Impulse: Doing Literature with the Tape Recorder	p. 61
Poetry by Phone and Phonograph: Tracing the Influence of Giorno Poetry Systems	p. 76
Soundtracking the Novel: Willy Vlautin's Northline as Filmie Audiobook	p. 92
Close Listenings
Novelist as "Sound-Thief": The Audiobooks of John le Carre	p. 109
Hearing Hardy, Talking Tolstoy: The Audiobook Narrator's Voice and Reader Experience	p. 127
Talking Books, Toni Morrison, and the Transformation of Narrative Authority: Two Frameworks	p. 143
Obama's Voices: Performance and Politics on the Dreams from My Father Audiobook	p. 159
Bedtime Storytelling Revisited: Le Pere Castor and Children's Audiobooks	p. 178
Learning from LibriVox	p. 199
A Preliminary Phenomenology of the Audiobook	p. 216
Contributors	p. 233
Index	p. 237
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