The Ear Versus the Eye: Poetry Recording as Adaptation

This paper examines whether the 20th and 21st century phenomenon of “recorded literature,” made for the ear rather than the eye, can be considered an adaptation of print literature. Touching initially on the audiobook – a prominent contemporary example of recorded literature – the paper focuses on poetry recordings (on phonographs, cassettes and CDs) and poetry broadcasts (on the radio) in order to problematize a binary relationship between an “original” printed text and an “adapted” recording of that text. I refer to recent theories of acoustics, such as those which emphasize the role of sound in literature, describing certain literary works in print as “phono-texts” (texts for the ear) as much as “grapho-texts” (texts for the eye). Using these theories, I argue that hearing a vocal performance of a poem, in a recording or a broadcast, ought to be understood as being linked to a so-called “silent reading” of a poem to oneself, in one’s own mind. I argue that these ought to be considered as interconnected, even interdependent processes of reception. In closing I consider the implications of recorded literature for reading and for hearing. In an era of radio, loudspeakers, iPods and podcasting, hearing is important as a mode of reception. If more poetry were recorded, broadcast and podcast, how would this affect the way we comprehend poetic texts, both in print and on record? Could it engender a shift from reading to hearing, from a “close reading” of texts to a “close listening” of them?