Listening to Fiction: Tracing Sound and Loudness in Narrative

Listening to Fiction: Tracing Sound and Loudness in Narrative

Dr. Svenja Guhr (Berkeley)

This talk explores how sound shapes the structure of literary prose by tracing patterns of auditory cues and loudness across narrative texts. Combining computational scene segmentation with fine-grained sound annotation, it examines character sounds and their varying intensity: from whispers to bursts of heightened loudness. Mapping these acoustic patterns onto narrative structure reveals sound as a dynamic and measurable feature of storytelling. Rather than serving as mere background detail, sound emerges as a key mechanism through which literary fiction structures experience and brings its scenes to life.

When: 26 May 2026, 10–12 Uhr (c.t.)
Where: Hybrid. Bielefeld University, Raum UHG B2-280
Online: Join via Zoom