Listen and be Touched: Aural Space in “Wandering Rocks”
In: Joyce's "Wandering Rocks"
Author:
Stefan Haag
Stefan Haag
The University of British Columbia
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Abstract
Many recent readings of “Wandering Rocks” have undermined the traditional conception of the episode as an instance of mechanistic determinism. This essay builds upon such readings by introducing the concept of the ‘soundscape’ to a reading of “Wandering Rocks”, reconceptualising the episode as an acoustic space. It proceeds to explore the effect of this reconfiguration upon ideas of the expected and the unexpected and of private and public space within the text, concluding by reflecting on the ethical and aesthetic consequences of an acoustic centring of this central episode of Ulysses.