Listening Deafly and the Rhetoric of Sound: Voice, Silence, and Listening in Hollywood Films

In this book, Sarah Mayberry Scott bridges the seemingly insurmountable divide between sound studies and deaf studies by considering the persuasive nature of sound at the intersection of sound, rhetoric, and deafness. Using three contemporary films as critical touchstones, CODA (2021), A Quiet Place (2018), and Sound of Metal (2019), Scott investigates how the history and values of Deaf culture provide opportunities for expanding the concepts of voice, silence, and listening to include a plurality of embodied experiences. Through utilizing an innovative rhetorical approach of listening deafly to sound, the author asserts that it is possible to understand voice without orality, to experience sound without hearing, and to listen in multi-modal ways to show that all bodies are sound bodies. Scholars of deaf studies, sound studies, and rhetoric will find this book of particular interest.

Sarah Mayberry Scott is assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Arkansas State University.