Public Acoustics: The Sound of Society in Ancien Régime Literature - Hardcover

$99.38

Public Acoustics: The Sound of Society in Ancien Régime Literature - Hardcover

Name: Public Acoustics: The Sound of Society in Ancien Régime Literature - Hardcover
Brand: BooksCloud
SKU: 9781512829471
Price: 99.38 USD
Availability: InStock

by Ellen R. Welch

$99.38

Book Overview

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by Ellen R. Welch (Author)

Explores how Ancien Régime writers theorized public communication through acoustic metaphors

The salons, cafés, theaters, and print shops of Ancien Régime France have long occupied a key place in histories of the "public sphere"--that is, a cultural arena where private individuals could discuss topics of public interest. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French writers certainly acknowledged the emerging importance of public discussion to their society and political culture. Yet when they wrote about contemporary public discourse, they typically used different words to describe it. Most often, they reached for a metaphor, referring to it as noise (bruit). What did it mean to characterize the public's discourse in this way?

In this book, Ellen R. Welch investigates the figure of noise in Ancien Régime writing as a resource for thinking about public communication. Analyzing plays, novels, letters, essays, and chronicles, Public Acoustics explores how creative writers manipulated commonplace acoustic metaphors to reimagine the political and social force of widespread talk; the workings of informal communication networks; the ethical relationships between chattering masses and listening elites; and the psychological dynamics of these auditory social bonds. Different from traditional ideas of the public sphere, noise represents an understanding of public discussion that is less invested in its rational content than in its mobility, volume, and tone. The term also recognizes the unmanageable multiplicity of perspectives it contains. Welch's excavation of this story of the Ancien Régime's "noise" resonates with our present moment, and the chattering, tweeting, echo-chamber-bound publics engendered by digital media.

Author Biography

Ellen R. Welch is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the author of A Theater of Diplomacy: International Relations and the Performing Arts in Early Modern France, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Number of Pages: 280

Dimensions: 0.75 x 9 x 6 IN

Publication Date: May 26, 2026

ISBN	9781512829471
Author	Ellen R. Welch
Publisher	University of Pennsylvania Press
Genre	News & politics, History, and Literature
Format	Hardcover
Published	May 2026
Language	ENG- English
Pages	280
Weight	1.0 lb
Target Audience	Adults
Print Size	Standard Print