The Oxford Handbook of Cinematic Listening

Abstract

It has long been suggested that films have changed the way we listen, but cinema’s contribution to broader listening cultures has only recently started to receive serious academic attention. Taking this issue as its central topic, The Oxford Handbook of Cinematic Listening explores—from philosophical, archival, empirical, and analytical perspectives—the genealogies of cinema’s audiovisual practices, the relationship between film aesthetics and listening protocols, and the extension of cinematic modes of listening into other media and everyday situations. Featuring scholars from musicology, film and literary studies, ethnomusicology and sound studies, media and communications, and psychology, this Handbook aims to foster new ways of thinking about the intersection between the history of listening and the history of the moving image. It offers a wealth of original case studies and novel perspectives that show how cinematic listening is constantly being redefined in relation to shifting historical, spatial, textual, and theoretical frameworks.