Abstract
This chapter draws from phenomenology to argue that podcasts provide the opportunity for audio-dramaturgy to instigate a radical break with the limits placed on it by radio technology. It questions prevalent theoretical characterisations of audio-drama as the theatre of the mind, understood intellectually and deliberatively, rather than immanently, due to the evanescent, amorphous nature of sound. Instead, the chapter draws from Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception to posit that listening to audio-drama is fundamentally a bodily experience, and the conception of the theatre of the mind arises from the confines of the medium of radio, rather than the sonic nature of audio-drama. Podcasts, it concludes, allow for a move away from conventional radio practices and toward more sonorous and bodily forms of audio-dramaturgy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Anon. (1928). Production of radio plays. In BBC handbook 1928 (pp. 15–117). London: The British Broadcasting Corporation.
Anon. (1934). Notes of the year. In BBC yearbook 1934 (pp. 57–60). London: The British Broadcasting Corporation.
Aristotle (1898) The Poetics of Aristotle (trans. Butcher, S. H). London/New York: Macmillan.
Arnheim, R. (1936). Radio (trans. Ludwig, M., & Read, H.). London: Faber & Faber.
Augoyard, J. F., & Torgue, H. (2014). Sonic experience: A guide to everyday sounds. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Press-MQUP.
Beck, A. (1999). Is radio blind or invisible? A call for wider debate on listening-in. www.savoyhill.co.uk [Internet]. Accessed 11 Jan 2017.
Beck, A. (2000). Cognitive mapping and radio drama. www.savoyhill.co.uk [Internet]. Accessed 11 Jan 2017.
Berry, R. (2016). Podcasting: Considering the evolution of the medium and its association with the word ‘radio’. The Radio Journal – International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 14(1), 7–22.
Bottomley, A. J. (2015). Podcasting, Welcome to Night Vale, and the revival of radio drama. Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 22(2), 179–189.
Brown, R. (2010). Sound: A reader in theatre practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Brown, R. (2011). Towards theatre noise. In L. Kendrick & D. Roesner (Eds.), Theatre noise: The sound of performance (pp. 1–14). Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Brown, R. (2016). Fix your eyes on the horizon and swing your ears about: Corwin’s theatre of sound. In J. Smith & N. Verma (Eds.), Anatomy of sound: Norman Corwin and media authorship. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Carman, T. (2008). Merleau-Ponty. London: Routledge.
Cazeaux, C. (2005). Phenomenology and radio drama. British Journal of Aesthetics, 45(2), 157–174.
Crisell, A. (1994). Understanding radio. London: Routledge.
Crisell, A. (2000). Better than Magritte: How drama on the radio became radio drama. Journal of Radio Studies, 7(2), 464–473.
Crook, T. (1999). Radio drama: Theory and practice. London: Routledge.
Drakakis, J. (1981). British radio drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dubber, A. (2013). Radio in the digital age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Edison Research. (2017). The infinite dial 2017. www.edisonresearch.com/infinite-dial-2017 [Internet]. Accessed 24 Apr 2017.
Elam, K. (2005). The semiotics of theatre and drama. London/New York: Routledge.
Esslin, M. (1971). The mind as a stage. Theatre Quarterly, 1(3), 5–11.
Gielgud, V. H. (1957). British radio drama, 1922–1956: A survey. London: Harrap.
Gimlet Media. (2017). Homecoming. gimletmedia.com/homecoming [Podcast]. Accessed 12 Jan 2017.
Harris, S., & Harris, W. (2015). SoundScape: Hosted by Woody and Suzi Harris. www.soundscapeprog.org [Podcast]. Accessed 21 Sept 2017.
Hill, C. W. (2015). Writing for radio. London: Bloomsbury.
Lewis, P. E. (1981). Radio drama. Harlow: Longman.
Luckhurst, M. (2006). Dramaturgy: A revolution in theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McInerney, V. (2001). Writing for radio. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
McLeish, R. (2012). Radio production. London: Focal Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002). Phenomenology of perception (trans. Smith, C., 1968). London: Routledge.
Myers, M. (2011). Vocal lanscaping: The theatre of sound in audiowalks. In L. Kendrick & D. Roesner (Eds.), Theatre noise: The sound of performance (pp. 70–81). Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Night Vale Presents. (2017). Welcome to Night Vale. www.welcometonightvale.com [Podcast]. Accessed 21 Sept 2017.
Ovadija, M. (2013). Dramaturgy of sound in the avant-garde and post-dramatic theatre. Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Pownall, D. (2011). Sound theatre: Thoughts on the radio play. London: Oberon.
RAJAR. (2016). MIDAS measurement of internet delivered audio services spring 2016. http://www.rajar.co.uk/docs/news/MIDAS_Spring_2016_FINAL.pdf. Accessed 23 Mar 2017.
RAJAR. (2017). RAJAR MIDAS audio survey. http://www.rajar.co.uk/docs/news/MIDAS_Spring_2017.pdf. Accessed 24 Apr 2017.
Rodger, I. (1982). Radio drama. London: Macmillan.
Shingler, M., & Wieringa, C. (1998). On air: Methods and meanings of radio. London: Arnold.
Sieveking, L. (1934). The stuff of radio. London: Cassell.
Smethurst, W. (2016). How to write for television: A guide to writing and selling TV and radio scripts. London: Robinson.
Verma, N. (2017a). The arts of amnesia: The case for audio drama, part one. RadioDoc Review, 3(1). http://ro.uow.edu.au/rdr/vol3/iss1/5/. Accessed 10 May 2018.
Verma, N. (2017b). The arts of amnesia: The case for audio drama, part two. RadioDoc Review, 3(1). http://ro.uow.edu.au/rdr/vol3/iss1/6/. Accessed 10 May 2018.
Willett, A. (2013). Media production: A practical guide to radio and TV. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
Workjuice Corp. (2014). The thrilling adventure hour. http://thrillingadventurehour.com [Podcast]. Accessed 21 Sept 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Soltani, F. (2018). Inner Ears and Distant Worlds: Podcast Dramaturgy and the Theatre of the Mind. In: Llinares, D., Fox, N., Berry, R. (eds) Podcasting. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90056-8_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90056-8_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90055-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90056-8
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)