Knowing by Ear

Reviews / Votes

"Baffling, confronting, and revealing-those are a few of the qualities that struck me as I read Anette Hoffmann's new book. I read it in one breath but with vicarious shame. Like her Listening to Colonial History, Knowing by Ear makes clear how much undiscovered information about colonial history is waiting for us in sonic archives all over the world. By investigating these sonic archives Hoffmann shows how African prisoners of war were simultaneously misunderstood, mistreated, and dehumanized." - Marcel Cobussen, Professor of Auditory Culture at Leiden University, the Netherlands "Knowing by Ear is a much-anticipated, urgent study of the coercive recording of African prisoners of war by German researchers during World War I. Challenging the original epistemic frames of this archive, Anette Hoffmann offers a sensitive analysis of the African speakers and their recordings. A highly rewarding read for all interested in war, media, and colonial archives, Knowing by Ear engages close listening, translation, and collaborative research as vital tools for reactivating these fragments today." - Carolyn Birdsall, Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam