Poetical thanatosonics—from vibrating bodies to documentary poems, based on Polish wartime verse

Abstract

Bringing together the methodology of sound studies and literary criticism, this article examines multiple affordances of documentary poems that stage wartime sounds along with correlated somatic reactions and diverse modes of sonic affectivity. The conceptual tools are borrowed from the works of J. Martin Daughtry, who coined the term “thanatosonics” to render the unity of wartime violence and audial phenomena. Daughtry's model of wartime audition provides a comprehensive framework for the analysis of poems which can be treated as first‐hand testimonies originating from one of the following: “the trauma,” “tactical,” “narrational,” or “audible inaudible” zones. These testimonies can also be analyzed through the complementary scheme of affective zones that seizes the multitude of sonically triggered reactions, from the pure shock identifiable with a sudden burst of affect, through emergent emotions connected with survival skills, to elaborated patterns within the cultural politics of emotions. The positionality of the authors of thanatosonic verse is essential, and different measures have to be taken towards texts written by soldiers and non‐combatants (e.g., civilians, prisoners). The proposed methodology is applied to examine both traditional and avant‐garde poems written in Polish during World War II.