Sounds Other: Listening for Difference in American History
Sounds Other: Listening for Difference in American History
(16) Sounds Other: Listening for Difference in American History - Rob Maclean, Department of English
What does otherness sound like? Is it true that you can tell a person’s race over the phone? Does immigration make cities sound different? Is there such a thing as white music? When we think directly about (racial) difference in the U.S., we tend to employ visual metaphors (invisibility, hypervisibility, skin color). In this seminar, we’ll investigate the ways that sound can also be a way to mark and make otherness. Together, we’ll develop an archive of sounds—songs, voices, sermons, screams, etc.—to help us understand the play of difference and identity in American history and contemporary life. We’ll examine the sounds of slavery in the U.S.; hybrid musical cultures in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands; debates about immigration and language; and how gender and sexuality are performed in popular culture and everyday life. The work of the seminar will include many genres and modalities: fiction, film, music, performance, and academic studies that will engage our senses, minds, and experiences.