Stephen McEvoy ~ Sonic Romanticism

Refusing a conception of the sonic as a category that is fixed, this thesis aims to elaborate the discursive formation of sound, and the deployment of this formation in contemporary theory in a mode that is identified as “sonic romanticism.” Emerging as a response to alienation under capitalism, sonic romanticism represents an attempt to recover an inclusive, immersive relational experience lost in the unfolding of Western subjectivity by turning towards the sonic. This research draws parallels between theoretical turns toward sound, and the ways in which poets of the Romantic era reacted to the effects of the expansion of the British empire. Framed as a means of undoing or overcoming alienation, turns to the sonic in this thesis are identified as replicating the same relations of power that they claim to move beyond. Sonic romanticism is described as it manifests in three areas of contemporary theory: the “orality turn” of media studies, in vibratory new materialist ontologies, and in the “ontological turn” of sound studies. This work challenges notions of the sonic as a fixed category, and the idea that sound can counteract or cure the effects of capitalist Western culture on subjectivity. Instead, it calls for a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the role of sound within the broader cultural and theoretical landscape.