
Public Acoustics
The Sound of Society in Ancien Regime Literature
Ellen R. Welch(Author)
University of Pennsylvania Press
Published on 8. May 2026
Book
Hardback
280 pages
978-1-5128-2947-1 (ISBN)
Description
Explores how Ancien Regime writers theorized public communication through acoustic metaphors
The salons, cafes, theaters, and print shops of Ancien Regime France have long occupied a key place in histories of the "public sphere"-that is, a cultural arena where private individuals could discuss topics of public interest. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French writers certainly acknowledged the emerging importance of public discussion to their society and political culture. Yet when they wrote about contemporary public discourse, they typically used different words to describe it. Most often, they reached for a metaphor, referring to it as noise (bruit). What did it mean to characterize the public's discourse in this way?
In this book, Ellen R. Welch investigates the figure of noise in Ancien Regime writing as a resource for thinking about public communication. Analyzing plays, novels, letters, essays, and chronicles, Public Acoustics explores how creative writers manipulated commonplace acoustic metaphors to reimagine the political and social force of widespread talk; the workings of informal communication networks; the ethical relationships between chattering masses and listening elites; and the psychological dynamics of these auditory social bonds. Different from traditional ideas of the public sphere, noise represents an understanding of public discussion that is less invested in its rational content than in its mobility, volume, and tone. The term also recognizes the unmanageable multiplicity of perspectives it contains. Welch's excavation of this story of the Ancien Regime's "noise" resonates with our present moment, and the chattering, tweeting, echo-chamber-bound publics engendered by digital media.
The salons, cafes, theaters, and print shops of Ancien Regime France have long occupied a key place in histories of the "public sphere"-that is, a cultural arena where private individuals could discuss topics of public interest. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French writers certainly acknowledged the emerging importance of public discussion to their society and political culture. Yet when they wrote about contemporary public discourse, they typically used different words to describe it. Most often, they reached for a metaphor, referring to it as noise (bruit). What did it mean to characterize the public's discourse in this way?
In this book, Ellen R. Welch investigates the figure of noise in Ancien Regime writing as a resource for thinking about public communication. Analyzing plays, novels, letters, essays, and chronicles, Public Acoustics explores how creative writers manipulated commonplace acoustic metaphors to reimagine the political and social force of widespread talk; the workings of informal communication networks; the ethical relationships between chattering masses and listening elites; and the psychological dynamics of these auditory social bonds. Different from traditional ideas of the public sphere, noise represents an understanding of public discussion that is less invested in its rational content than in its mobility, volume, and tone. The term also recognizes the unmanageable multiplicity of perspectives it contains. Welch's excavation of this story of the Ancien Regime's "noise" resonates with our present moment, and the chattering, tweeting, echo-chamber-bound publics engendered by digital media.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Pennsylvania
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paper over boards
Illustrations
4 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 160 mm
Width: 236 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
560 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5128-2947-1 (9781512829471)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ellen R. Welch is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the author of A Theater of Diplomacy: International Relations and the Performing Arts in Early Modern France, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.