Audible Caribbeans: Sound and Body in Mo

This course examines the role of sound in the configuration of Caribbean bodily and spatial politics from the 20th century to the present. Caribbean sonorities have been associated mostly with the revelry of musical rhythms such as el son, la rumba, la plena, el merengue, and most recently el reguetón, among others. This course aims to transcend this common assumption— without ignoring it—to examine a wider range of acoustic expressions and their ambivalent works in the (im)mobilization of Caribbean bodies. We will closely explore sonic phenomena such as ritual utterances, political speech, radio melodramas, urban soundscapes, spoken word poetry, and lip-syncing, among others, as they unfold in processes of national formation, experiences of civil and political unrest (colonialism, dictatorships, forced migrations, natural catastrophes), and daily life. Inquiries regarding the operations of sound in the configuration of social space and the sensorial language of power and resistance will guide our discussions. We will focus closely on how the very materiality of sound (as well as acoustic technologies, media, and practices) has helped (re)shape the Caribbean political landscape (with emphasis on notions of race, gender, and sexuality). Students will engage with an array of literary and visual phenomena, mostly from the Hispanic Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic), although we will also analyze case studies from the French Caribbean. Concurrently, we will discuss critical and theoretical readings on the relationships between sounds, bodies, and space (by Ortiz, Barthes, Spivak, Sterne, McEnaney, Ochoa Gautier, Cavarero, Lamar Robbins, and Negrón-Muntaner, among others).