Sound effects: Hearing the early modern stage

by Laura Jayne Wright

This book shows that the sounds of the early modern stage do not only signify but are also significant. Sounds are weighted with meaning, offering a complex system of allusions. Playwrights such as Jonson and Shakespeare developed increasingly experimental soundscapes, from the storms of King Lear (1605) and Pericles (1607) to the explosive laboratory of The Alchemist (1610). Yet, sound is dependent on the subjectivity of listeners; this book is conscious of the complex relationship between sound as made and sound as heard. Sound effects should not resound from scene to scene without examination, any more than a pun can be reshaped in dialogue without acknowledgement of its shifting connotations. This book listens to sound as a rhetorical device, able to penetrate the ears and persuade the mind, to influence and to affect.

248 pages, Hardcover

Published June 27, 2023

Reviews

[Katheryn Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sound effects: Hearing the early modern stage maps different kinds of sounds from a wide range of early modern plays (1576 to 1625), and analyses their significance as types of sound, resources of a playwright, and makers of meaning within their play. I found this one a persuasive and engaging read, which is sure to make readers think differently about the way sound is heard and performed on the early modern stage. I also enjoyed the style of writing, and especially the way Wright leans into the ambiguity and complexity of her topic.