Listening to difference: J.G. Herder’s aural theory of cultural diversity in the ‘Treatise on the Origin of Language’ (1772)

Solanki, Tanvi

doi:10.1080/01916599.2022.2064603

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…That is, merely including voices of asylum seekers in media representations for listeners who are not listening to difference is counterproductive. To listen to difference, we must listen to how our positionalities vis-à-vis institutional and inherited power and privilege train our listening to the degree to which we are ‘responsive to the inequalities and conflicts that shape speaking and listening relationships’ (Dreher, 2009: 452; Dreher and De Souza 2018: 22; Solanki 2022a) to those marked as the most politically marginalized (Bassel, 2017: 11; Bickford, 1996: 187).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Listening to the cultural acoustics of migrant voices: The archived conversations of the British Broadcasting Corporation and the British Library’s ‘Listening Project’

Solanki

2023

European Journal of Cultural Studies

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

I examine the cultural acoustics of voice and listening in relation to the experience of migration and displacement through an analysis of a selection of digitized audio recordings of intimate one-on-one conversations between asylum seekers originally recorded by local British Broadcasting Corporation’s radio stations in booths set up throughout the United Kingdom, with the unedited recordings digitally archived by the British Library for the public. My approach to this archive is constituted by a concept and practice I call listening to difference. My case studies are two Somali siblings, a Syrian father and son, and two friends from Algeria and the Congo, and their relationality to the norms of Standard British Listening. My aim is to show how listening to these conversations can make us aware of our own limiting preconceptions in our listening and when and why they occur. Listening to ourselves listening will work against aurally mediated racial ideologies as it necessitates reflecting upon our own automatized, enculturated biases, as well as that of technologies of recording and transcription such as automated speech recognition. It challenges preconceptions about those voices marked as deviating from unmarked norms long established by the legacies of European Enlightenment humanism. Critically listening to those who are othered and belong to communities radically different from our own involves the exposure of aural power differentials and is particularly urgent during a time of an unprecedented increase of refugees accompanied by an increased controlling of national borders antagonistic to refugees and immigrants.

show abstract