Abstract
Yusef Komunyakaa’s poetry is widely acclaimed for its sui generis soundscapes, which shows the poet’s highly sensitive auditory perception in his literary creations. Soundscapes, in his poetry, play a pivotal role in revealing social malaise—racial inequalities and gender-biased black relations—in the multiracial US. This article thus explores race- and gender-related societal problems mirrored in Komunyakaa’s poetry through the prism of soundscapes. It first aims to examine how soundscapes are presented between poetic lines as a culture carrier, and then investigates the disciplinary power and oppositional function of soundscapes. Combining textual close reading with interdisciplinary research methodology, this article brings to light the complexity and specificity of soundscapes in Komunyakaa’s poetry. For one thing, the soundscape constructed by the privileged serves as an oppressive force to discipline the disempowered groups; for another, the soundscape the underprivileged produce is utilized as an instrument of resistance and healing, offering them a sonic weapon to deconstruct the oppressive sound imperialism as well as construct the affective community of African Americans. This study not only adds to the research on Komunyakaa’s poetry by offering a renewed viewpoint of excavating this poet and his political proposition of equality and equity, but also attracts academic attention to the role of literary soundscape in Afro-American literature in revealing the long-standing societal problems in the US.
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Notes
In Ugly Feelings, the expert in negative emotion study Sianne Ngai (1971-) summarizes seven negative affects, including “animatedness”, “envy”, “irritation”, “anxiety”, “stuplimity”, “paranoia” and “disgust”. This book has been serving as an essential guide in negative affect research ever since.
“Loneliness has become an emotional hold-all: a shorthand for the absence of happiness, for a sense of disconnect, for depression and alienation, for social isolation” (Alberti, 2021: vii).
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Huang, T. “Listening Between the Lines”: Soundscapes in Yusef Komunyakaa’s Poetry. J Psycholinguist Res 52, 1939–1956 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-023-09978-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-023-09978-9