Table of Contents

1. Inscriptions and Simulations: The Imagination of Technology 2. Performance, Inscription, Diegesis: The Technological Transformation of Representational Causality 3. Everything But the Kitchen Sync: Sound and Image Before the Talkies 4. Sound Theory 5. Standards and Practices: Aesthetic Norm and Technological Innovation in the American Cinema 6. Sound Space and Classical Narrative

Promotional Information

"Rigorous, detailed, and compelling." -- Mary Anne Doane, Brown University "Rarely has high-flying theory been anchored in such careful research and presented in such clear prose." -- Rick Altman, University of Iowa "James Lastra brings complexity, texture, and erudition to the story of the development not just of film sound, but the Big Three of modernity's representational technologies: photography, phonography, and cinema itself. From Edison's 'tone tests' to the 'up-and-downer,' Lastra constructs a history/metahistory of technological devices and practices as negotiated through changing discourses and institutions. His book is a model of intellectual rigor and vigor; its impact will be felt for a long time to come." -- Claudia Gorbman, University of Washington - Tacoma

About the Author

James Lastra is associate professor of English at the University of Chicago.

Reviews

"An interesting scholarly account of the rise of early film sound technologies... fascinating in its discussion of how sound practice, particularly in the accounts of film sound engineers, complicates and grounds sound theory." -- "Review of Communication"