This book examines sonic signals as something both heard internally and externally, through imagination, memory and direct response. In doing so it explores how the mind 'makes' sound through experience, as it interprets codes on the written page, and creates an internal leitmotif that then interacts with new sounds made through an aural partnership with the external world, chosen and involuntary exposure to music and sound messages, both friendly and antagonistic to the identity of the self. It creates an argument for sound as an underlying force that links us to the world we inhabit, an essential part of being in the same primal sense as the calls of birds and other inhabitants of a shared earth. Street argues that sound as a poetic force is part of who we are, linked to our visualisation and sense of the world, as idea and presence within us. This incredibly interdisciplinary book will be of great interest to scholars of radio, sound, media and literature as well as philosophy and psychology.
Reviews / Votes
"Our all-too perfunctory understanding of terms and concepts like silence, voice, noise and listening is expanded immeasurably by Professor Seán Street's perceptive study of these states of being, and the fundamental and abiding role that sound plays in shaping our personal identities as human beings. Street can be commended for a book which manages to ground its richly philosophical and metaphysical observations on sound and listening with a concern with the demotic potentialities of broadcasting, and an awareness of what it means to be exposed to the man-made and mediated hubbub of noise in daily life (the proverbial 'ear to the ground'). A major contribution towards something overlooked (or unheard) in the humanities - an ethnography of listening." (Dr Ieuan Franklin, Bournemouth University, UK)
"Seán Street has written a masterpiece on the place for the poetic soul in radio and sound communication, art, and listening. 'Is there anyone there?' cried a character in the Walter De La Mare's poem 'The Listeners.' When reading 'Sound Poetics: Interaction and Personal Identity' you may well find an answer. Elegantly crafted prose conjures the emotions, intellect and human identity of sound poetics, reflecting on the philosophy and meaning of the connections between memory, sound, silence and story telling. This is a powerful interplay of interdisciplinary academic research and writing that is mellifluous rather than fevered, and leaves the reader with rich thoughts, ideas and sentiments." (Professor Tim Crook, Head of Radio, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)
Series
Edition
Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2017
Language
Place of publication
Publishing group
Springer International Publishing
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 21 cm
Width: 14.8 cm
Weight
ISBN-13
978-3-319-86452-5 (9783319864525)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-58676-2
Schweitzer Classification
Seán Street is Emeritus Professor of Radio at Bournemouth University, UK. He has appeared in many radio and television programmes, discussing the history and aesthetics of radio and sound. As a poet, he has published nine collections.
Acknowledgements.- Preface: Poetic Making.- Chapter 1: Poetry and the Idea of Sound.- Chapter 2: Silent Sound - Imagination and Identification.- Chapter 3: Transmitters and Receivers - Shared and Selected Sound.- Chapter 4: Invasion of the Sound Aliens.- Chapter 5: Uncomfortably Numb - Alone in the Sound World.- Chapter 6: Searching for the Sound of Self.- Bibliography.- Index.
