Dumbstruck - A Cultural History of Ventriloquism

Prof. Steven Connor

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Hardback

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English

Oxford University Press
01 November 2000

Conjuring & magic; Puppetry, miniature & toy theatre; History: specific events & topics

Why can none of us hear our own recorded voice without wincing? Why is the telephone still full of such spookiness and erotic possibility? Why does the metaphor of ventriloquism, the art of 'seeming to speak where one is not', speak so resonantly to our contemporary technological condition? These are the kind of questions which impel Steven Connor's wide-ranging, restlessly inquisitive history of ventriloquism and the disembodied voice. He tracks his subject from its first recorded beginnings in ancient Israel and Greece, through the fulminations of early Christian writers against the unholy (and, they believed, obscenely produced) practices of pagan divination, the aberrations of the voice in mysticism, witchcraft and possession, and the strange obsession with the vagrant figure of the ventriloquist, newly conceived as male rather than female, during the Enlightenment. He retrieves the stories of some of the most popular and versatile ventriloquists and polyphonists of the nineteenth century, and investigates the survival of ventriloquial delusions and desires in spiritualism and the 'vocalic uncanny' of technologies like telephone, radio, film, and internet. Learned but lucid, brimming with anecdote and insight, this is much more than an archaeology of one of the most regularly derided but tenaciously enduring of popular arts. It is also a series of virtuoso philosophical and psychological reflections on the problems and astonishments, the raptures and absurdities of the unhoused voice.

By: Prof. Steven Connor
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 165mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 865g
ISBN: 9780198184331
ISBN 10: 0198184336
Pages: 458
Publication Date: 01 November 2000
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

PART I: POWERS ; 1. What I Say Goes ; PART II: PROPHECIES ; 2. Earth, Breath, Frenzy: The Delphic Oracle ; 3. Origen, Eustathius, and The Witch of Endor ; PART III: POSSESSIONS ; 4. Hoc Est Corpus ; 5. The Exorcism of John Darrell ; 6. O, that Oh is the Devill: Glover and Harsnett ; PART IV: PRODIGIES ; 7. Miracles and the Encyclopedie ; 8. Speaking Parts: Diderot and Les Bijoux indiscrets ; 9. The Abbe and the Ventriloque ; 10. The Dictate of Phrenzy: Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland ; PART V: POLYPHONICS ; 11. Ubiquitarical ; 12. At Home and Abroad: Monsieur Alexandre and Mr Matthews ; 13. Phenomena in the Philosophy of Sound: Mr Love ; 14. Writing the Voice ; PART VI: PROSTHETICS ; 15. Vocal Reinforcement ; 16. Talking Heads, Automaton Ears ; 17. A Gramophone in Every Grave ; PART VII: NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT ; 18. No Time Like the Present ; Works Cited ; Index

Steven Connor was educated at Christ's Hospital, Horsham and Wadham College, Oxford, and has taught at Birkbeck College, University of London since 1979, where he is currently Professor of Modern Literature and Theory.

Reviews for Dumbstruck - A Cultural History of Ventriloquism

`How the world of mediumistic displays, of possession and exorcism, of glossolalia and witchcraft, led us to Victorian parlour entertainments and then to Toy Story is the absorbing substance of this book.' Economist, December 2000 `a genuinely unusual and rich source for the curious ... There is much in this book, much more than the subject matter suggests ... Connor has pulled together an enormous amount of material in the service of a compelling story.' The Linguist List `There is much in this book, much more than the subject matter suggests. Connor has pulled together an enormous amount of material in the service of a compelling story.' The Linguist List `This book is erudite and broad in scope. Its strength is the way it links cultural phenomena in new ways. ... Connor gives us an intelligent study of a domain of skilful cultural creativity, against a background of several millennia of appalling irrational behaviour.' Raphael Salkie, Times Higher Education Supplement, Friday 16th march 2001 `fascinating ... highly recommended, not least for its sheer breadth of scholarship.' Brian Boyd, Irish Times (Dublin) 13.01.01. `ventriloquism is defined in the largest and most colourful sense.' Peter Ackroyd, The Times 8/11/00. `this incredibly erudite work ... is easily the best account of the dark business at the roots of the art ... a scholarly but wry style that is a pleasure to read.' Andrew Martin, New Statesman 11/12/00. 'comprehensive history...peppered with shrewd observations' The New York Times Book Review `Connor manages to retain a remarkably even-handed tone as he moves from the Delphic Oracle to the Witch of Endor, Dickens to Beckett, the gramophone to the World Wide Web' TLS `Dumbstruck triumphantly reclaims ventriloquism from the condescension of posterity' TLS