“Sound, in Western thinking, has always been somewhat of an irritant. Ubiquitous and yet evanescent, sound does not easily yield to a thinking accustomed to things, locations, and stable configurations. Likewise, hearing for centuries has been dominated by the other senses: olfactory, haptic and most prominently in modern times, visual perception. Even though recent scholarship has slowly begun to recuperate the senses from longstanding neglect, and despite the upsurge of critical discourses centered on the body, still few are those scholars who challenge the prevailing emphasis in the social sciences and humanities on representational practices associated with the visual. Even fewer are those who turn their attention to hearing. The course will explore a range of discourses and practices pertaining to sound as culture. Many of the readings will be about various aspects of sound (and occasionally, music) in Europe, but by examining sound from a cross-cultural perspective the course will also attempt to open up a dialogue with alternative sonic practices and thus ultimately challenge many taken-for-granted notions underlying contemporary theories of culture.”