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: 1^st 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@leedstrinity.ac.uk; % 0113283 7231; or Rachel Cowgill, School of Music, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT; e-mail: r.e.cowgill@leeds.ac.uk.