Resonant Alterities

This book attempts to bridge the gap between sound studies and literary criticism. Primary objects of analysis are a ghost story by Vernon Lee, a novel of psychic adventure by Algernon Blackwood, a dystopian science fiction tale by J. G. Ballard, and a post-traumatic short novel by Don DeLillo. Each is discussed in relation to historically specific, (non-)literary cultural debates on sound. All four theory-enriched analyses focus on intersecting and desire-laden processes of meaning making, knowledge production, and subject formation. Focal points are aurally/audio-visually structured phenomena which express collective and individual anxieties.

Sylvia Mieszkowski teaches literature, cultural analysis and film at Berlin University. Her research (19th and 20th centuries) examines cultural expressions of collective anxieties and individual phantasms.