Acousmatic Noise: Racialization and Resistance in The Tempest's 'New World' Soundscape

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12745/et.25.1.4484

Keywords:

Acousmatic noise, race, class, resistance, sound studies

Abstract

I analyze Shakespeare’s racialization of noise in The Tempest as an acousmatic phenomenon and suggest how the acousmatic — sound whose source remains hidden — is imagined as a weapon of resistance that the racialized noisome Other could use to resist aristocratic and colonial power. Shakespeare’s play echoes the Algonquian-speaking Powhatan use of acousmatic singing in Tsenacommacah as a mode of warfare against the English in Virginia in 1611 with that of Caliban and his companions’ (Stephano and Trinculo) singing revolt.

 

Author Biography

Mayra Cortes, University of California San Diego

Mayra Cortes (m8cortes@ucsd.edu) is a PhD candidate in the department of literature at the University of California, San Diego.

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Published

2022-06-10

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 1 (2022)

Section

Articles

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