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Humanities
Special Issues
Literature and Sound
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Literature and Sound

A special issue of Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 441

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Vincent Barletta

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Comparative Literature, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Interests: Portuguese and Brazilian literatures; literature and music; classical reception; literature and linguistic anthropology; literature and philosophy
Dr. Luca Bacchini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies, Sapienza, University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy
Interests: Portuguese and Brazilian literatures; literature and music; environmental humanities; fictional soundscapes; dictatorship and cultural resistance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

What does it mean to say that literature is sonorous? How does sound shape activities such as reading and writing across cultures and traditions? This Special Issue of Humanities explores these and related questions by examining the role of sound in comparative literary studies from the nineteenth century to today. From more traditional phonological analysis to explorations of rhythm, soundscapes, listening practices, and new technologies, this Special Issue looks to serve as a touchstone for new and innovative work in literary studies—work focused primarily on the ear rather than the eye. Areas of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Linguistics;
  • Rhythmanalysis;
  • Performance;
  • Ethnography;
  • Philosophy;
  • Musicology;
  • New technologies.

Dr. Vincent Barletta
Dr. Luca Bacchini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Humanities is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • listening
  • aurality
  • ethnography of literacy
  • phonology
  • music
  • modernity

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 256 KiB  
Article
Floating Texts: Listening Practices in the Accounts of Foreign River Expeditions in Brazil
by Fernando G. Cespedes
Humanities 2025, 14(6), 128; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14060128 - 11 Jun 2025
Abstract
Western written travel narratives are a byproduct of the privileging of vision as the primary means of knowledge production, an epistemology often imposed on indigenous peoples through colonial practices. In contrast, indigenous cultures in Brazil have long relied on listening as a central [...] Read more.
Western written travel narratives are a byproduct of the privileging of vision as the primary means of knowledge production, an epistemology often imposed on indigenous peoples through colonial practices. In contrast, indigenous cultures in Brazil have long relied on listening as a central way of engaging with their environment. In the present essay, I examine how listening practices appear in the written accounts produced by members of three foreign river expeditions in Brazil from the 16th to the 20th century. I analyzed travel accounts from Gaspar de Carvajal’s Relación del Nuevo Descubrimiento del Famoso Río Grande (XVI century), Hercules Florence’s Voyage Fluvial du Tieté à l’Amazone (XIX), and Theodore Roosevelt’s In the Jungles of Brazil (XX). To explore what these travelers might have heard, I also collaborated with a sound designer to create a soundscape using actual recordings of local fauna and indigenous chants and music. The results show a variety of listening modes put into practice such as conquest-driven, scientific observation, contemplation, and hunting-focused and aesthetic appreciation. These narratives illustrate how European epistemologies reinforced Western dominance by shaping both colonial encounters and scientific approaches to Brazilian wilderness exploration. Full article
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