[-empyre-] re: voices, genders and other matters

[hazel smith <hazel.smith@canberra.edu.au>]

HI Alan

 I agree with you about this matter of voice and locality and I think we
are in the same "place" here! If a voice seems to belong to a certain
locale then that is something of an illusion created by temporarily fixing
the vocal signifiers in a coherent position. And of course the concept
place  is itself inherently unstable, since any place is changing, dynamic
and socially constructed, though as you suggest,  it may not suit those in
power to view it as such.

Yes the voice has often lost out in theories of androgyny, unstable
sex/gender. Which is why I like to use the term "sonic cross dressing"!

Thanks for yr input

Hazel



> But what does it mean for a voice to _belong_ to a locality? This is a
> question of great interest - it's here that politics - of hegemony,
> domination, control - arise, as well as mapping - because localities and
> voices map poorly, both in terms of sound production, and in terms of
> resonance, echo, repeaters of all sorts, filterings and transformations.
> It's easier to transform the space of vocalization than physical space
> itself - Rosset talks about the 'idiocy' of the real - that the real is
> obdurate, granular all the way down, immobile and immobilized - but the
> voice, sound, are in a way floating signifiers - your use of in-between or
> liminal vocalizations takes advantage of this of course. Androgyny in
> visual or gender/sexual terms is _named_ - androgyny in terms of the voice
> isn't -
>



Dr. Hazel Smith
Senior Research Fellow
School of Creative Communication
Deputy Director
University of Canberra Centre for Writing
http://www.ce.canberra.edu.au/writing
Editor of Inflect http://www.ce.canberra.edu.au/inflect
University of Canberra
ACT 2601
phone 6201 5940
More about my creative work at
www.australysis.com