Dissonant Records: Close Listening to Literary Archives

The inherently moral nature of the choice to amplify or silence is the central focus of Tanya E. Clement’s Dissonant Records: Close Listening to Literary Archives. This book review summarizes Clement’s work in applying the methodology of close listening to archival audio of five literary figures (Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, Anne Sexton, and Gloria Anzaldúa). In noting the silences, absences, and amplifications in the recordings, Clement points to the ways in which meaning making in the archives is mediated by the technologies of preservation and access.