Abstract
This article defines the concept of auditivity in literary texts, both in the narrower sense of the term (the physically audible properties of a text) and in its wider sense (the potential ability of a text to create an auditive image in the mind of the recipient, thus conveying information in an aesthetic form, or contributing to this process). The article also investigates the possibilities of an intermedia typology of auditivity incorporating music and literature. This idea is built on the fact that both literature and music work with sound; they thus function as art forms which are close to their base material (Novák 2005: 26–34). I draw on a typology of literary/musical intermediality developed by Wolf (2011: 62–85), and I reach the conclusion that auditivity is a complex and complicated intermedia phenomenon which incorporates several intermedia types. The most explicit manifestation of the auditive properties of a text is on the level of structural plurimediality (sound poetry). Sound is also manifested implicitly in literary texts via intermedia imitations of acoustic structures (intermedia references in the form of imitations), which are very frequently accompanied by intermedia thematization. Auditivity in the process of literary communication has been investigated in the phases of auditivization (the deliberate creation of auditory properties in a literary work), reproduction and reception of literary texts. It has been determined that writers not only use traditional elements of poetic phonetics and phonology, but also engage in pure sonic experimentation. I reach the conclusion that the process of auditory emancipation of language is directly proportional to the loss of semantic properties by a text; literature thus comes close to the universality of musical communication.
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Notes
Dramatic texts are not considered here, because they are primarily intended to be performed on stage. It is assumed that such texts will be reproduced aloud, and that their auditory properties will be exploited in the process.
Červenka’s unique study was based on a lecture he gave to the Institute for the Czech Language at the Czech Academy of Sciences. In it, he responds to comments received from both literary scholars and members of the public concerning unclear terminology, especially the terminology used when analyzing the sonic components of poetry. Musicology responded to the issue of terminology far earlier; see the monograph Hudba a její pojmoslovný systém (“Music and its Terminological System” by Fukač and Poledňák, Prague, 1981).
For example, Czech has 30 sounds (phones) in its repertoire, of which only 5 are vowels. In music, each sound has its own precise frequency, and can be termed a tone, while in literature vowel sounds have non-specific frequency, pitch, length, volume and timbre (tone colour). Some linguists have speculated on the semantic features of sounds with respect to their timbre, but their conclusions have not found widespread acceptance. Tones in music are recorded by notation, in musical scores, while in literature their “interpretation” varies depending on the individual who is reading or reciting the text.
Some authors do so for psychological reasons arising from their own real-life connection with music—influenced by musical training, listenership or active musicianship. Authors may have various reasons for identifying closely with a particular musical style or genre. This identification may respond to an author’s desire to profile themselves as a member of a particular generation (motivated by rebellion, protests, disillusionment, style or image); it may express generational values (the search for truth, freedom, authenticity, self-fulfilment and personal achievement); it may be a means enabling the author to express their musical experiences to readers; or it may possess an existential dimension (iconizing death, life, suffering, anxiety etc.). For more details see Novák (2012: 143–147).
The concept of the auditive logogen is taken from a work by Spousta (2010: 25). Spousta cites the British psychologist McLean-Thorne, who defines the auditive logogen as the sonic form of information. We can use the concept of the auditive logogen analogously to the concepts of the visual logogen (the written, visual form of information) and the pictogen (the image form of information). Spousta states that these three forms of information become part of the cognitive system, in which they undergo further processing.
A special type of case occurs when a trained musician reads musical scores and when doing so, imagines the sounds that would be produced by performers.
A further set of issues arises in connection with the question of the extent to which auditive literacy is related to visual literacy. Is it necessary to hear in order to understand language, as it is necessary to see in order to read text?
Omitting visual arts (e.g. cases in which images simulate sounds, as when a painting depicts a musician playing a saxophone and the recipient creates a mental sonic idea of what a saxophone sounds like). This would be a means of referring to saxophone-playing.
Also omitting the fact that sound was originally used primarily for non-verbal communication, and only at a later stage of development did it become the basis for verbal (and later also musical) communication.
I.e. “beyond-sense” or “metalogical” – in the sense of the Russian Futurist concept of zaumny (in Czech zaumný): “O adjektivu zaumný; mezi řečí i ke slovům kameňák, sofistikovaný” [online]. Available at: http://nase-rec.ujc.cas.cz/archiv.php?art=7889 [retrieved 2019-02-06] or see Opelík (1990).
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Novák, R. Sound in Literary Texts. Neophilologus 104, 151–163 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-019-09623-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-019-09623-8