Digital Media and Information in Society/Student Journals/AydenGenther/Phonograph and-Narrative

Phonograph and Narrative

This article explores the politics and aesthetics of racialized acoustics in the Americas through the analysis of works by Aimé Césaire (politician and poet), Tom McEnaney (works on the history of media and technology) and Dylon Lamar Robbins (academic write). It argues that sound technologies and mediated voices play a crucial role in the production of racialized power dynamics, and that a transnational approach is necessary to understand the relationship between sound technologies, white or whitening political and aesthetic hegemonies, and formative practices that resist, interfere with, and transform these hegemonies. I think the conclusion of sound technologies having been a way to empower white voices socially and politically wasn't something that I thought of, but when I read about it and thought about it more critically it made sense due to economic reasons as well as racial inequality.