Computational Stylistics in Poetry, Prose, and Drama pp 87–⁠98

Abstract

This chapter argues that poets’ performances of their work are often shaped by sonic genres apposite to, or altogether outside, reading styles recognized as “literary.” Poetic performances include instances of political radio speeches, sermons, vaudeville monologues–all voices that poets “do” as a dimension of sonic form. Departing from this premise, the chapter introduces a method of machine listening based on hypothesis testing to identify sonic genre across a heterogenous corpus of sound recordings. This preliminary study is dedicated to discussing prospective methodology. The materials under discussion are James Weldon Johnson’s sermon-poems from God’s Trombones in comparison with recordings of a “Black Diamond Express to Hell” by Rev. AW Nix.

About

Mustazza, C. (2023). In Search of the Sermonic: Machine Listening and Poetic Sonic Genre. In A. S. Bories, P. Plecháč, & P. Ruiz Fabo (Eds.), Computational Stylistics in Poetry, Prose, and Drama: (pp. 87–98). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110781502-005

DOI
http://doi.org/10.1515/9783110781502-005

Print ISBN
978-3110-781-41-0

Online ISBN
978-3110-781-50-2

Published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)