YorkSpace has migrated to a new version of its software. Access our Help Resources to learn how to use the refreshed site. Contact diginit@yorku.ca if you have any questions about the migration.
 

Insound, Outsound, Unsound: Re-Sounding Poetry, 1950s to 2010s

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorWeaver, Andrew
dc.contributor.authorSmith, Kristen Adele
dc.date.accessioned2023-12-08T14:31:06Z
dc.date.available2023-12-08T14:31:06Z
dc.date.issued2023-12-08
dc.date.updated2023-12-08T14:31:04Z
dc.degree.disciplineEnglish
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractExamining the multifaceted presence of sound in varieties of visually-oriented texts written from the 1950s–2010s by transnational poets, my project considers how sound (both actual and metaphorical) affects readers’ expectations and experiences when performing and interpreting poetry. The dissertation probes the cognitive science of reading, the sonic interchanges made possible by texts, and the implications of this work for discussions of intermediality and the cultural inflections of gender and race. I begin by considering cognitive processes fundamental to reading: how Ignace J. Gelb, Walter J. Ong, S. J., and Donald Shankweiler demonstrate that sounding is foundational to the reading process. Building upon research by Charles Bernstein, derek beaulieu, Craig Dworkin, Johanna Drucker, Don Ihde, Brandon Labelle, Marjorie Perloff, and Jonathan Sterne, my project presents an innovative method of sound as an analytical tool. Chapter 1 defines and explains three original categorizations: insound, outsound, and unsound. I present the critical means for examining these distinct sonic forms along with visual representations of the methods. Subsequently, each application chapter examines the three sound types in a different form of visually-oriented poetry (concrete, erasure, and non-linguistic). The selected poets’ works share formal characteristics but are diverse in historical and cultural experiences and the gender expressions they constitute. Chapter 2 argues that using sound as an interpretive tool for Eugen Gomringer’s “silencio” and Steve McCaffery’s Carnival reanimates the temporality of these concrete works. Chapter 3 reveals the biases in sounding and the power inherent in wielding sound in two exceptional erasure poems, M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong! and Jordan Abel’s The Place of Scraps. Chapter 4 examines how the seeming absence of sound in non-linguistic poetry stalls reading practices, using Mary Ellen Solt’s “Moonshot Sonnet,” Caroline Bergvall’s Drift, and Eric Schmaltz’s Surfaces. With the efficacy of Insound and Outsound approaches in question, this chapter suggests alternative processing methods and concludes that non-linguistic poems eschew any totalizing approach. Instead, they need to be considered individually to discover the works’ aesthetic and semantic complexity. The final Coda provides a preliminary exploration of the In / Out / Unsound method’s future, organized in terms of applications, transpositions, and extensions.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/41658
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectLiterature
dc.subjectCanadian literature
dc.subjectCommunication
dc.subject.keywordsLiterature
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian literature
dc.subject.keywordsContemporary literature
dc.subject.keywordsPoetry
dc.subject.keywordsContemporary poetry
dc.subject.keywordsVisual poetry
dc.subject.keywordsConcrete poetry
dc.subject.keywordsErasure poetry
dc.subject.keywordsNon-linguistic poetry
dc.subject.keywordsSound
dc.subject.keywordsSounding
dc.subject.keywordsSonic
dc.subject.keywordsAural
dc.subject.keywordsAurality
dc.subject.keywordsLinguistics
dc.subject.keywordsLanguage
dc.subject.keywordsCognitive psychology
dc.subject.keywordsNeuroscience
dc.subject.keywordsReading
dc.subject.keywordsPedagogy
dc.subject.keywordsCommunication
dc.subject.keywordsListening
dc.subject.keywordsHearing
dc.subject.keywordsNoise
dc.subject.keywordsMedia
dc.subject.keywordsIntermedia
dc.subject.keywordsIntermediality
dc.subject.keywordsPerformance
dc.subject.keywordsInsound
dc.subject.keywordsOutsound
dc.subject.keywordsUnsound
dc.subject.keywordsAmplification
dc.subject.keywordsReappropriation
dc.subject.keywordsImage
dc.subject.keywordsVisual
dc.subject.keywordsVisuality
dc.subject.keywordsAesthetics
dc.subject.keywordsAesthetic erasure
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical erasure
dc.subject.keywordsPolitics
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican literature
dc.subject.keywordsGender
dc.subject.keywordsRace
dc.subject.keywordsBlack
dc.subject.keywordsIndigenous
dc.subject.keywordsQueer
dc.titleInsound, Outsound, Unsound: Re-Sounding Poetry, 1950s to 2010s
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Smith_Kristen_A_2023_PhD.pdf
Size:
53.73 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.87 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
YorkU_ETDlicense.txt
Size:
3.39 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download

Collections

English

All items in the YorkSpace institutional repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved except where explicitly noted.