Sound and Sense in British Romanticism

James Grande, Carmel Raz

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2023
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009277853
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

A radical re-imagining of the relationship between sound and sense took place in Britain in the decades around 1800. This new approach reconfigured sound as central to understandings of space and temporality, from the diurnal rhythms of everyday life in the modern city to the 'deep time' of the natural world. At the same time, sound emerged as a frequently disruptive phenomenon, a philosophical and political problem, and a force with the power to overwhelm listeners. This is the first book devoted to the topic and brings together scholars from literary studies, musicology, history and philosophy through the interdisciplinary frameworks of sound studies and the history of the senses. The chapters pursue a wide range of subjects, from 'national airs' to the London stage, and from experiments in sound to new musical and scientific instruments. Collectively, they demonstrate how a focus on sound can enrich our understanding of Romantic-era culture. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Music Examples
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 William Hogarth: Looking and Listening for a Painting
• Chapter 2 Collecting Ballads, Historicizing Sounds: Appropriating Scottish National Music in the Eighteenth Century
• Chapter 3 Realising The Enraged Musician
• Chapter 4 'A Strange Jingle of Sounds': Scenes of Aural Recognition in Early Nineteenth-Century English Literature
• Chapter 5 The Sound of News: Affective Rhythm, Rupture, and Nostalgia
• Chapter 6 The Resounding Fame of Fingal's Cave
• Chapter 7 Echoing Sounds: What Was Poetry for Gilbert White?
• Chapter 8 Mary Somerville's Sound Accomplishments
• Chapter 9 Organizing Modernity: Henry Liston's Euharmonic Organ and Natural Tuning in Company India
• Chapter 10 Stethoscopic Fantasies
• Bibliography
• Index