Sounds of War and Peace

Drawing on a wealth of archival and literary sources, and availing themselves of a broad range of methodological approaches, the authors provide interdisciplinary reflections on the soundscapes of selected European cities in the year 1945, through representation in autobiographical texts and art, and through reception and transformation.

This book vividly evokes for the reader the sound world of a number of European cities in the last year of the Second World War. It allows the reader to «hear» elements of the soundscapes of Amsterdam, Dortmund, Lwów/Lviv, Warsaw and Breslau/Wrocaw that are bound up with the traumatising experiences of violence, threats and death. Exploiting to the full methodologies and research tools developed in the fields of sound and soundscape studies, the authors analyse their reflections on autobiographical texts and art. The studies demonstrate the role urban sounds played in the inhabitants' forging a sense of identity as they adapted to new living conditions. The chapters also shed light on the ideological forces at work in the creation of urban sound space.

Autorentext

Renata Täczuk is a professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Wroc aw, Poland. S awomir Wieczorek is a faculty member of the Institute of Musicology at the University of Wroc aw, Poland.

Inhalt

Soundscape Sound history 1945 War Postwar Urban soundscape Soundscape representation Narrative strategy Sound reception Trauma Sound memory Sound studies