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Grosser Hörsaal Nadelberg 6 | 4051 Basel
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English Seminar
Julie Beth Napolin: Sinister Resonance
Searching for a way to describe Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad wrote that it was “a sinister resonance” and “continued vibration.” These sound figures are ethnocentric, drawn from his vexed memories of music in the Congo, but they are also generative, demanding that literary theorists take seriously a sonic substratum of writing and reading. This talk addresses “sinister resonance” as a profound challenge to the transcendental signifier that supports modernist theories of language and telecommunication: the voice. At the same time, “sinister resonance” names the sensorial contact that makes literary history and comparative study possible. To demonstrate this possibility, the talk describes how Conrad’s novel resonates with the writing and listening practices of W.E.B. Du Bois, who was also confronting a transatlantic nexus of sound, language, and racial consciousness. The sinister resonance does not denote a literary or cultural history in the traditional sense. While it transmits, it does not “communicate”; it wounds and participates in ongoing colonial linguistic extraction, from the phonograph to the cell phone.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the event is open exclusively to staff and students of the University of Basel. Valid Covid-19 certificate required.
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