There have been many offers of a philosophy of voice, but where is the philosophy of accent? Accent is the accident of voice, that arbitrary and inessential straying of the voice from itself that nevertheless makes it what it is. But if my accent is the mark of what is characteristic in my voice, it is because it is the mark in me of a generality or repeatability. There can be by definition no unique accent, for all accents are echoes and concordances – and, as such, may also serve to betray one. So accent oscillates between the noise of voice and the voice of noise. As such it goes to the heart of the defining paradox of voice, that it expresses me because it goes beyond what I can myself make of it, or make out in it. These will be the terms in which I will aim to meditate on the idea and actuality of accent, considering its beauties and liabilities.
About the Author
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Steven Connor
Steven Connor is Grace 2 Professor of English in the University of Cambridge and fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He is a writer, critic and broadcaster, who has published books on Dickens, Beckett, Joyce and postmodernism, as well as on topics such as ventriloquism, skin, flies, and air. His most recent books are Paraphernalia: The Curious Lives of Magical Things (2011) and A Philosophy of Sport (2011). Beyond Words: Sobbing, Humming and Other Vocalizations is forthcoming from Reaktion Press and Beckett, Modernism and the Material Imagination forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2014. His website at www.stevenconnor.com includes lectures, broadcasts, unpublished work and work in progress.