Turning Ears; Or, Ec(h)otechnics

IF 0.2 4区文学 0 LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM

DIACRITICS-A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM Pub Date : 2020-12-03 DOI:10.1353/dia.2019.0036

Naomi Waltham-Smith

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Abstract

Abstract:The vestigial auricular muscles are a trace of an earlier evolutionary capacity to turn the ears. While they are still functional in other mammal species, they are scarcely responsive in humans, who compensate by turning the head instead. This transformation was part of adaptations in the cervical spine that made possible the becoming-technological of the upright stance and humanity’s front-facing posture. Unable to sense what comes from behind, human ears are oriented toward what lies ahead within the field of vision—toward the foreseeable—and yet in listening, as in walking, the human is thereby compelled to turn back. From this angle, the sonic turn—often figured as a return to sound—instead names multiple moments of turning back: an originary nonhuman turning of the ears, humanity’s turning its back on this turn, and the unavoidable detours from this precipitous path. This essay argues not only for an originary technicity and prostheticity of aurality, but also that the nonhuman turn takes place via a sonorous detour. Analyzing the metaphoricity and tropological of language, it compares two figures—apostrophe and interjection—to show how the sonic and nonhuman turns continually address and animate one another.

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转动耳朵；或者，Ec（h）技术

摘要：残留的耳廓肌肉是早期进化中转动耳朵能力的痕迹。虽然它们在其他哺乳动物中仍然具有功能，但在人类中几乎没有反应，而是通过转动头部来补偿。这种转变是颈椎适应的一部分，使直立姿势和人类正面姿势成为可能。由于无法感知来自后面的东西，人类的耳朵指向视野中前方的东西——指向可预见的东西——然而在倾听中，就像在行走中一样，人类被迫回头。从这个角度来看，声音转向——通常被认为是声音的回归——反而命名了多次转向的时刻：一次原始的非人类的耳朵转向，人类在这个转向上的转向，以及从这条陡峭的道路上不可避免的迂回。本文不仅论证了光环的独创性和修复性，而且论证了非人类的转向是通过一条铿锵的迂回道路发生的。通过分析语言的隐喻性和修辞性，它比较了撇号和感叹词这两个数字，以展示声音和非人类的转向是如何不断地相互称呼和激励的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

DIACRITICS-A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM-

CiteScore

0.80

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： For over thirty years, diacritics has been an exceptional and influential forum for scholars writing on the problems of literary criticism. Each issue features articles in which contributors compare and analyze books on particular theoretical works and develop their own positions on the theses, methods, and theoretical implications of those works.