Description
Book SynopsisVoices are material, somatic, and musical. They are also meaningful—they give body to concepts that cannot exist in abstractions. Through explorations of theology, pedagogy, translation, and more, this book works toward reintegrating our thinking about words as a fleshy combining of meaning and music.
Trade Review"In this eloquently written and elegantly conceived book, Karmen MacKendrick speaks for voice--and speaks up for it--in much-needed new terms. MacKendrick ask us to recognize that voice matters in part because it is matter. The bodily and musical qualities of voice have rarely, if ever, been given their philosophical due. Moving across a wide span of concerns from literature to theology, The Matter of Voice shows why that gap in our thinking should be filled and proceeds to fill it memorably." -- -Lawrence Kramer Fordham University "The Matter of Voice is a work of philosophical theology in a multidisciplinary and poetic key. Its central organizing insight is that voice and voicing are productive of corporeality and rhythm in language. As MacKendrick shows, at the heart of the voice is 'an irreducible and carnal strangeness' that refuses closure and invites passion back into thinking. The book is a sterling exemplar of the richness that results from attending to the somatic quality of words, yielding a layering of ideas that forms a virtual chorus of multiperspectival thinking." -- -Patricia Cox Miller Syracuse University
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Hearing Voices 1. The Matter of Voice 2. Speaking to Learn to Listen 3. Thou Art Translated! 4. The Voice in the Mirror 5. Original Breath 6. The Meaning in the Music Notes Works Cited Index
