[ANPPOM-L] CFP: Victorian Soundscapes 17 March 2007

[Carlos Palombini]

Eighteenth Northern Victorian Studies Colloquium

17th March 2007 at Trinity and All Saints, Leeds

Victorian Soundscapes

Over the last two decades there has been a resurgence of interest in 
aspects of the ‘sensory economies’ of Victorian Britain. Particular 
attention has been given to the optical cultures, the influence of 
changing theories of perception, the impact of new glass technologies 
and its spin-offs, such as the microscope and the telescope. The study 
of Victorian aural cultures, notwithstanding the continued attention to 
aspects of the musical history of the period, have until recently 
remained relatively neglected. However, not least with the appearance of 
John Picker’s Victorian Soundscapes (2003), new questions about the 
nature of Victorian aural cultures are beginning to be asked, and new 
ways of considering the histories of sound in this period being 
developed. This colloquium hopes to contribute to this trajectory, by 
bringing together musicologists, literary scholars, social and cultural 
historians, to engage in interdisciplinary debate. Offers are invited of 
papers on any topic which might address these themes. Questions which 
might be addressed include (but are in no sense confined to):  In what 
ways did contemporaries see themselves as living in a new aural culture? 
In what ways did the place of music in British culture change over the 
period? What significance did silence have for the Victorians? How did 
the functions of the spoken word change in an increasingly literate 
society? Did later Victorian technological developments, especially the 
telephone, alter contemporary perceptions of the nature and place of 
sound? What forms of ‘aural anxiety’ were particularly prevalent in the 
Victorian period?

Deadline for proposals: 1st July 2006.

A selection of the papers will be published as Volume 9 of the Leeds 
Working Papers in Victorian Studies and distributed to all participants.

Send proposals to:

Martin Hewitt, Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies, Trinity and All 
Saints, Brownberrie Lane, Leeds, LS18 5HD; e-mail 
m.hewitt em leedstrinity.ac.uk; 0113283 7231; or Rachel Cowgill, School of 
Music, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT; e-mail: r.e.cowgill em leeds.ac.uk.

-- 
carlos palombini
diretor
centro de pesquisa em música contemporânea
universidade federal de minas gerais
cpmc-ufmg
<palombini em terra.com.br>