| Title | 7. A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of Listening |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Pieter Verstraete(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0469.07 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0469/chapters/10.11647/obp.0469.07 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Pieter Verstraete |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2025-10-24 |
| Long abstract | This chapter introduces a multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis well-model tuned to the analysis of sound and music in the theatre in relation to other impulses like gestures, images, texts and spaces. This methodology facilitates discussion of the connections between direct auditory perceptions and other sense perceptions in narrativising music and sound. It combines analysis of listening modalities, as introduced by R. Murray Schafer and Barry Truax, with theories of music and sound as communicative affordance in discourse, like Lyndon Way and Simon McKerrell’s. One critical aspect of the method is that it can reveal the ideological aspects lurking behind the power of music and sound. For that purpose, the methodology incorporates Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding differentiation which explains how we consent to certain dominant, hegemonic ideas in which both processes of encoding (intentional meanings at the production side) and decoding (possible interpretations) take place in line with national and geopolitical interests, or in other words, the dominant cultural order. The method is well-suited for the discussion of music(al) theatre in all its forms, but it has been also developed for other audiovisual media, like music videos or the use of music in TikTok reels. |
| Page range | pp. 145–166 |
| Print length | 22 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Pieter Verstraete is a tenured Assistant Professor in Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Groningen. He is Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Theatre and Performance (EJTP), elected member of the Executive Committee of EASTAP, and Chair of the MCAA Benelux Chapter. His work centres around, on the one hand, the interdisciplinary study of sound and voice in the theatre, including music theatre, and on the other hand, the study of socio-political and activist forms of performance, post-migration and exile, memory and commemoration, with a regional focus on Turkey. Recent publications include Performance Research 27:3-4 (2022), ITI Journal 3 (Feb. 2023), Red Thread 6 (2023), Open Research Europe 3:109 (2023), Music and Sound in European Theatre (2024). He co-edited the special issue on ‘Activism and Spectatorship’ of EJTP 4 (2022) with Agata Łuksza, and the issue on ‘Exile and (Neo-) Nationalism’ of EJTP 7.1 (2025) with Yana Meerzon. He is co-editor of books: Inside Knowledge: (Un)doing Ways of Knowing in the Humanities (CSP 2009), Berberian: Pioneer of Contemporary Vocality (Routledge 2014), and Theatre, Performance and Commemoration: Staging Crisis, Memory and Nationhood (Bloomsbury 2023).