Overview

This book shows that the sounds of the early modern stage do not only signify but are also significant. Sounds are weighted with meaning, offering a complex system of allusions. Playwrights such as Jonson and Shakespeare developed increasingly experimental soundscapes, from the storms of King Lear (1605) and Pericles (1607) to the explosive laboratory of The Alchemist (1610). Yet, sound is dependent on the subjectivity of listeners; this book is conscious of the complex relationship between sound as made and sound as heard. Sound effects should not resound from scene to scene without examination, any more than a pun can be reshaped in dialogue without acknowledgement of its shifting connotations. This book listens to sound as a rhetorical device, able to penetrate the ears and persuade the mind, to influence and to affect.

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9781526159182

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Reviews

'“Listen. Follow the Noise.” So begins Laura Jayne Wright’s landmark study of theatrical sound (1). Do so with Wright as your guide, and you will be rewarded with a startlingly fresh perspective on the importance of sound in the early modern playhouse.' Shakespeare Bulletin 'If you have not previously given much thought to sonic effects in early modern plays, reading this book will ensure that you do so in the future; it will open your ears and your imagination to meanings and ambiguities you did not hear before. It will make you a better audience, in the true sense of the word.' Shakespeare Quarterly -- .

'“Listen. Follow the Noise.” So begins Laura Jayne Wright’s landmark study of theatrical sound (1). Do so with Wright as your guide, and you will be rewarded with a startlingly fresh perspective on the importance of sound in the early modern playhouse.' Shakespeare Bulletin -- .

Author Information

Laura Jayne Wright is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Newcastle University.

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