Of Crossings and Crowds: Re/Sounding Subject Formations Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Kehler, Devon R. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 04/10/2021 06:11:05 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/625373 OF CROSSINGS AND CROWDS: RE/SOUNDING SUBJECT FORMATIONS by Devon R. Kehler __________________________ Copyright © Devon R. Kehler 2017 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN RHETORIC, COMPOSITION AND THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2017 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Devon R. Kehler, titled Of Crossings and Crowds: Re/Sounding Subject Formations and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ___________________________________________________________ Date: April 14, 2017 Adela C. Licona ____________________________________________________________ Date: April 14, 2017 Maritza Cardenas ____________________________________________________________ Date: April 14, 2017 John Melillo Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: Date: April 14, 2017 Dissertation Director: Adela C. Licona 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Devon R. Kehler 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A project like this comes to fruition only through collective efforts. The collective efforts of mentors, teachers, friends, and family have shaped and sustained this project from inception to completion. First, I wish to acknowledge the mentorship and friendship Adela C. Licona offered me from the first day I was admitted into the Rhetoric, Composition and Teaching of English (RCTE) program. Adela’s rigor and vigor go unparalleled. Her distinct abilities to bring joyfulness, patience, and rigor to projects and people that are concerned with social justice, arts practices, and historically disenfranchised subjectivities proved both nourishing and inspiring for this project’s development. Maritza Cardenas and John Melillo also acted as mentors and friends during the years it’s taken to complete this doctoral program. The project is intellectually sharper because of Maritza’s involvement. What Maritza sharpened, John stretched. John’s listening practices helped this project find pathways and soundways that would not have presented themselves without John’s listenings. This project simply could not have become without the generosity, kindness, and laughter each of you extended to me over these past few years. A project like this comes to fruition only through collective efforts. While some academic disciplines elevate the idea that research requires a “lone wolf” approach to scholarly production, this project’s sheer existence defies the idea and practice of “singularity” in all its forms. It bears silent witness to countless conversations I’ve had with friends and teachers about the curious ways sound and listening influence the ways subject-hood un/folds and re/forms through musical song. I wish to say a special thanks to Aunt D—your empathic listening practices helped keep me and the project going at times where the bramble was thick and I couldn’t find a way through. Likewise, friendship with Dr. Anne-Marie Hall instilled confidence and bolstered the project’s ability to relate sound and listening to the teaching of composition. This project also bears witness to the wisdom of Dr. Gretchen Dietz, who has been and continues to be a fiercely loyal friend, an astute reader, and above all, an inspiration. For sustenance and shelter, endless gratitude goes to Brad Jacobson, Madelyn Tucker Pawlowski, Eric House, Jose Cortez, Stephanie Troutman, Ken McAllister, Sharonne Meyerson, Erin Whittig, and the “dis and desserts” crew. The meals we’ve shared have nourished my spirit and energized this project. A project like this comes to fruition only through collective efforts. None of this could or would have come to pass without Anna F. Zischkau. You are friend, confidant, lover, partner, and the person who remains a constant in a world with so much impermanence. There will never be words for what you bring to the world and to me. But there are songs that come pretty close to the way it feels to build a life with you. “Breathe Me” by Sia is what comes to mind first. Listening to “Breathe Me” gets at what it’s like to be physically, spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally held by you. Wherever we go from here, whatever we are asked to endure, I trust that we will keep holding on to each other. Thank you for keeping a firm and loving hold on me while this project introduced unexpected pain. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for grieving with me. Thank you for helping me find ways toward joy in the presence of despair. Thank you for your tirelessness. Thank you for keeping faith and hope while I ran low on both. 5 DEDICATION In memory and honor of my grandparents, Marilyn Kehler and Mario Culotta, who passed during the completion of this project and were my earliest teachers in the ways musical sound can function as a tool for social connection and affective relation. In celebration of my partnership with Anna F. Zischkau; your musical talents and unwavering belief in the power of music making provide continual sonic and spiritual sustenance. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER ONE: CROSSING RHETORIC AND MUSIC: BECOMING CROWDED SUBJECTS IN/OF SOUND ............................................................................................................9 Falsely Divided: Rejoining Rhetorical and Sonic Arts through Temporality ............................13 Key Concepts .............................................................................................................................15 Key Terms: Working Definitions ..............................................................................................18 Project Organization: Chapter Sequence and Outlines .............................................................30 CHAPTER TWO: RESPOND-ABLE AND ENSEMBLED, TIMBRAL AND TIMED: LISTENING AS AN ETHICAL METHOD ..................................................................................36 Defining Listening within Westernized Rhetorical Traditions .................................................39 Queering Epideictic Listening ..............................................................................................43 More than an Earful, an Ethics: Performing and Un-positioning Listening ..............................45 Un-fixing Pre/positionality: Un-positioning .........................................................................52 Re/bound and Un/bound: Listening’s Resonant Sense ..............................................................61 Timbral Attuning and Attending ...........................................................................................65 Temporal Attuning and Attending .........................................................................................72 Improvising and Syncopating ................................................................................................76 Listening is a Con/fusion of Epideictic Appearances ................................................................80 CHAPTER THREE: RE/HEAR/SINGING PROTESTING SUBJECT FORMATIONS ............82 Tuning, Showing and Writing: Chapter Coordinates ................................................................88 Tuning Show Tunes into Protest: Show Tune Turned Freedom Song ......................................90 Scenes of Conservation and Reproduction ...........................................................................99 Tuning: Persona-fied Crowds and Affective Constellations ...................................................101 Affective Dynamics: Political Despair, Urgent Rage, Tragic Disgust ...............................107 In Contempt of Complacency: Dis/stressing