The Sound of Shakespeare

by Wes Folkerth

The 'Sound of Shakespeare' reveals the surprising extent to which Shakespeare's art is informed by the various attitudes, beliefs, practices and discourses that pertained to sound and hearing in his culture.
In this engaging study, Wes Folkerth develops listening as a critical practice, attending to the ways in which Shakespeare's plays express their author's awareness of early modern associations between sound and particular forms of ethical and aesthetic experience. Through readings of the acoustic representation of deep subjectivity in Richard III , of the 'public ear' in Antony and Cleopatra , the receptive ear in Coriolanus , the grotesque ear in A Midsummer Night's Dream , the 'greedy ear' in Othello , and the 'willing ear' in Measure for Measure , Folkerth demonstrates that by listening to Shakespeare himself listening, we derive a fuller understanding of why his works continue to resonate so strongly with is today.

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 23, 2002

Reviews

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was written by my Shakespeare prof, who was also my thesis supervisor. He's brilliant, and this book is incredibly creative and insightful. He's managed to do something new in the centuries-old field of Shakespeare studies. Amazing!

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wes considers the sound of Shakespeare is nearly every possible meaning of sound, from the sound of his language to audio recordings. Because of this inclusiveness, he covers a lot of old ground as well as new. The old ground did not include many fresh insights, and so the relatively low star rating. This is a good book, but I wanted more from it: more new material and deeper insights.