The revocalization of logos? Thinking, doing and disseminating voice

Abstract

Abstract'As a specific object of interest for philosophy, the human voice is grasped within a system of signification that subordinates speech to the concept'. It is in the traditional dualism between the vocal/aural and the conceptual/seen that Cavarero postulates the devocalization of logos, the dichotomy between embodied phonation and critical enquiry.Her remarks invite further probing of the pedagogy and creative praxis of voice: how do we conceptualize voicing? How does voice emerge from and reflect back to its discursive domains? How can we bridge the chasm between the ontology and epistemology of voice? How do we think, do and disseminate voice? In reflecting on these concerns, our overall aspiration is to propose a new paradigm for practice as research (PaR) education in Voice Studies.

From textual orality to oral textuality: The case of voice queries

“…While the term logos originates in the ancient Greek verb legen , which refers to speaking or joining (words) together (Cavarero, 2005: 33), critical inquiry was often seen as distinct from the oral world. As Thomaidis (2014) argues, following Cavarero’s (2005) analysis of various philosophical sources, this devocalization of logos was part of the dualism between vocal/aural and conceptual/seen, between phonation and logos-driven critical enquiry (Thomaidis, 2014: 77). This rested in the assumption that language, as the realm of signs, can exist with no voice.…”

“…This rested in the assumption that language, as the realm of signs, can exist with no voice. ‘Voice in the process of signification is just a remainder, a leftover, not worthy of much elaboration outside its role as bearer of utterances’ (Thomaidis, 2014: 80). Logos was structured as part of the mute and visible realm, that of the signifieds (Cavarero, 2005: 43).…”

“…The metaphor to ‘look up’ is one of many in English language phrases that stress the primacy given to sight on the way to ‘know’. In fact, the etymological roots of many concepts related to logos – such as idea, theory, and science – are related to sight and signal the role of observation as a means of inquiry (Thomaidis, 2014: 79). Like other similar metaphors, such as ‘look through’ or ‘look down’, it combines sight with a concept of space (Li, 2013: 1240).…”

Revocalising human geography: Decolonial language geographies beyond the nation-state

“…Section Two offers a suggestion of how such a reconceptualisation might proceed, through discussion of Italian feminist political philosopher Adriana Cavarero’s (2005) philosophy of vocal expression. While Cavarero’s analysis of Western metaphysics’ systematic ‘devocalization of logos’ (40) has prompted re-evaluations of the significance of the vocal in various academic fields from education and politics to performance and critical legal studies (Bertolino, 2017; Eidsheim, 2011; Richardson, 2011; Schlichter and Eidsheim, 2014; Thomaidis, 2015), the implications of her seminal For More than One Voice: Towards a Philosophy of Vocal Expression (2005) seem not to have been considered in significant depth by human geographers. More sustained engagement with Cavarero’s call to (re)conceptualise voice as a means of embodied, noisy, affective relation, I argue, if running alongside consideration of the implications of her philosophy from a modernity/coloniality/decoloniality perspective, could contribute to developing alternatives to the (ethno)nationalist geographies of language outlined in Section One of this paper.…”