Between Language and Sound: Space and the Aural Subject in Quim Monzó's Uf, va dir ell

Abstract

This article argues that in Uf, va dir ell (1978), Quim Monzo complicates the idea of a nationalist politics rooted in language by shifting the reader's attention from voice, textuality, and orality to the role of aurality in producing subjectivity. Constructing a series of listening subjects who move through urban soundscapes, the collection construes sound as a felt, corporeal experience that is communicated textually via onomatopoeia, prosodic rhythm, and the representation of a globalized soundscape. As the article shows, this globalized aural construction of space, language, and subjectivity challenges nationalist attempts to link language directly to Catalan national identity. Nevertheless, by addressing the work to an audience who must "hear" the soundscape as they read, the collection ultimately reinserts sound into a politically-engaged aural imaginary defined by the Catalan community. The reader as listener, then, occupies a dual position, both corporeally hearing language as sound and understan...