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Japan and sound: modernity, social constructs and power relations

Posted: February 29th, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Japan and sound: modernity, social constructs and power relations

14-15 November 2024, Bordeaux Montaigne University
Organised by MSH Bordeaux, D2iA (Bordeaux Montaigne University, La Rochelle University), IETT (Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University)

Recent ethnographic and historical research has shown that sound and musical production and listening practices are linked to social constructs, in particular to questions of identity and power relations (Mitsui, Hosokawa 2005; Wajima 2010; Hankins, Stevens 2014; Kheshti 2015; Manabe 2015; Novak, Sakakeeny 2015; Radano, Olaniyan 2016; Plourde 2019; Chenhall, Kohn, Stevens 2021; Haukamp, Hoene, Smith 2022; Skelchy, Taylor 2022). These studies suggest that the relationship between sound and everyday life must be understood within specific cultural contexts, i.e. within specific temporal, spatial and social frameworks. The global dissemination of technologies and the standardisation of techniques for producing and mediating sound since the modern era have let to acts of reappropriation and reinterpretation of sound, whether determined as natural or artificial, and of the ways in which it is heard. Examining the ways in which sound is made, mediated and received reveals a fundamental political tension between what can be reduced to the pairing of hearing and being heard; it provides insight into the processes of exploring relationships with others and of psychic and social affirmation of an individual or collective selves, spaces and ‘ears’; it also reconsiders power structures through the imprints, and the ecology on which they depend, of a transitory form.

The symposium aims to identify areas of historical and social friction that may be invisible or little informed, but are nonetheless not mute, and to examine the media and technical devices used to construct and express specific identities through sound. It aims to investigate how sound is utilised as an instrument of control or resistance, of cohesion or dispersion of forces, of unification or segmentation of spaces, within the multiple trajectories, whether international, national or local, that accompany the changes in modern and contemporary Japanese society. It also aims to explore representations linked to sound and listening, which, in reality are rarely isolated in media and sensory terms, but are transferred from or to other objects and modes of perception. Our aim is to draw new lines of understanding of the country and its inhabitants, on a variety of human and spatial scales, in line with what previous studies on sound have contributed to the process of decentring the way we look and listen, which has often had a Western perspective.

For a long time, sound was overshadowed by visual culture and literature. These discursive forms whose printed, sculpted or painted traces, are often immediately available to us through the media, took precedence. However, sound, being elusive by nature, is now a subject of study that research on modernities is beginning to focus on. Taking sound in its material, sensitive and performative dimensions, it has necessitated the use of multidisciplinary approaches including history, anthropology, sociology in its many fields of application, political science, musicology and cultural studies, in order to deal as effectively as possible with an object that has a profound effect at various points in society: a research configuration that the symposium we are proposing will also use to significantly refine our understanding of complex integrative and coercive phenomena.

The symposium aims to invite papers on, among other topics, the following:

  • the role of sound in the representation and construction of social and cultural identities;
  • sound as measurable and objectifiable data, and therefore as a political tool for normalising representations and relationships with others;
  • sound as a means of administration and discipline, of deafening and aphonia; as an instrument of power and counter-power;
  • the use of technology and sound media in the construction of specific sensory, affective or memory spaces;
  • the relationship between physical space and imagined space in the production and consumption of sound;
  • the challenges of preserving “soundscapes” in a changing and transforming natural environment;
  • sound as an element of complex multimedia or transmedia dynamics.

The term “sound” as used here is considered in its various forms and meanings. It includes music, voice and noise. It is also to be understood in its translational forms through images and texts.

The focus here is mainly on Japan. Proposals that broaden the perspective to Asia or other areas for comparative purposes are welcome.

We are inviting lecturers, post-doctoral, doctoral and master’s students, independent researchers and other sound specialists to take part in the call for papers.

Proposals should include a title, a summary of approximately 200 words, the affiliation if applicable, and a contact email address, to be sent to [email protected] by 30 April 2024.

Responses to the call will be given before July 2024.

Suggested bibliography:

BUSCATTO Marie, Women in Jazz: Musicality, Femininity, Marginalization, London, Routledge, 2021 (2007)

CHENHALL Richard, KOHN Tamara, STEVENS Carolyn S., Sounding Out Japan: A Sensory Ethnographic Tour, London, Routledge, 2021

CHUJO Chiharu, “Chanter l’écologisme dans le Japon de l’après-Fukushima : l’ambivalence de la musique écoféministe chez UA”, Itinéraires [Online], 2021/1, 2022

CORRAL Jeremy, Japanoise. Extrémismes & Entropie, Dijon, Les Presses du réel, 2019

HANKINS Joseph D., STEVENS Carolyn S. (ed.), Sound, Space and Sociality in Modern Japan, London, Routledge, 2014

HAUKAMP Iris, HOENE Christin, SMITH Martyn (ed.), Asian Sound Cultures: Voice, Noise, Sound, Technology, London, Routledge, 2022

KHESHTI Roshanak, Modernity’s Ear: Listening to Race and Gender in World Music, New York, New York University Press, 2015

KOWALCZYK Beata M. 2023. ““…in Japan, We Are Just Imitating the ‘Real’ Thing…”. (Re)doing Racialized Authentic Self in Classical Music.” Gender, Work & Organization 30 (4), 1468–1483.

MANABE Noriko, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Protest Music After Fukushima, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015

MITSUI Tôru, HOSOKAWA Shûhei (ed.), Karaoke Around the World: Global Technology, Local Singing, London, Routledge, 2005

MORI Yoshitaka (ed.), After Musicking, Tokyogeijutsudaigakushuppankai, 2017

NOVAK David, SAKAKEENY Matt (ed.), Keywords in Sound, Durham, Duke University Press, 2015

PLOURDE Lorraine, Tokyo Listening: Sound and Sense in a Contemporary City, Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, 2019

RADANO Ronald, OLANIYAN Tejumola (ed.), Audible Empire: Music, Global Politics, Critique, Durham, Duke University Press, 2016

SKELCHY Russell P., TAYLOR Jeremy E. (ed.), Sonic Histories of Occupation: Experiencing Sound and Empire in a Global Context, London, Bloomsbury, 2022

SUZUKI Seiko, CORDEREIX Pascal, BERGOUINIOUX Gabriel (dir.), Mémoire sonore du Japon, le disque, la musique et la langue, Orléans, Presses universitaires d’Orléans, 2021

WAJIMA Yûsuke, Creating Enka: The “Soul of Japan” in the Postwar Era, Osaka, Public Bath Press, 2018 (2010)

WARTELLE Clara. “Le « Mouvement des chants pour enfants » au Japon, croisement de la chanson et de la littérature de jeunesse en faveur de la création d’un répertoire national”, in GAIOTTI Florence, HAMAIDE-JAGER Eléonore (dir.), La chanson dans la littérature d’enfance et de jeunesse, Arras, Artois Presses Université, 2020, 93-106

« Le mur du son. Quand le son fait sens », special issue of Revue de la BNF, 55, 2017/2

« Sons et cultures sonores », special issue of Sociétés & Représentations, 49, 2020/1