James A Steintrager
Biographic Data
| ID | 408930 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James A Steintrager |
| GIVEN NAMES | James A |
| FAMILY NAME | Steintrager |
| SIGNATURE | STEINTRAGER J A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Wake Forest University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1966 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Cicada’s Deafening Tymbals
In the genealogy of sound studies, the figures of Pierre Schaeffer and R. Murray Schafer have loomed large, the former bequeathing key concepts of sound objects and acousmatic listening, the latter the idea of soundscapes. Relatively neglected have been Schaeffer’s elaboration of sonic morphology and typology, as well as Schafer’s ecological impetus. This essay returns to and links these aspects of these writers’ works, focusing on the troubling …
Dispatches to the Dead
For the past twenty years or so, the Austrian cultural theorist Robert Pfaller has been positing and analyzing the concepts of “interpassivity” (as opposed to interactivity) and the delegation of enjoyment both in sacred rituals and in relation to various media of reproduction (such as video recorders and photocopiers). Steintrager and Chow argue that Pfaller's insights into delegation as a key and understudied feature of media ecologies are part…
Sound Objects
Embodied minds and their aural imaginings
Sonic Virtuality: Sound as Emergent Perception, which grows out of Mark Grimshaw and Tom Garner’s previous collaborative research on sound in computer games, aims to provide a general account of so
"Let's Have Done with the Notion of "Noise
These two essays together expose, examine, and critique the workings of "causalism," the implicit positive valuation that attaches to sonic sources with respect to musical production and audition. According to some, timbre, along with pitch, intensity, and duration, would name the fourth fundamental aspect of sounds deemed musical. But while attempts have been made to find in timbre an objectively quantifiable and measurable aspect of sound-and o…
Dissolution of the Notion of Timbre
These two essays together expose, examine, and critique the workings of "causalism," the implicit positive valuation that attaches to sonic sources with respect to musical production and audition. According to some, timbre, along with pitch, intensity, and duration, would name the fourth fundamental aspect of sounds deemed musical. But while attempts have been made to find in timbre an objectively quantifiable and measurable aspect of sound-and o…
In Pursuit of the Object of Sound
Speaking of Noise
In 1997, Jacques Attali made great claims on behalf of noise in his book Noise. Noise would be a revolutionary force within music and, indeed, society-the name of resistance to symbolic violence and "channelization." This essay examines what has happened to the discourse and the practice of noise since this moment. In the first part, the focus is on Michel Chion's writings that deal with noise-both conceptually and linguistically-across a variety…
Hermeneutic heresy
Translation is a topic that seems to come and go with regularity on the literary theory scene. It has most recently enjoyed a vogue among comparatists, who have positioned translation as a way to renew—yet again—their discipline (see, for example, Emily Apter's The Translation Zone). Translation has also been discussed in the context of feminism, deconstruction, and postcolonial studies. With respect to the last grouping, the writings of Niranjan…
Liberating Sade
In the 1960s, both high theory and popular culture used the Marquis de Sade to link concerns about violence and social repression with an investment in sexual repression in the psychoanalytic sense. While Sade's writings suggest the incompatibility of complete sexual freedom with political emancipation, this apparent contradiction was meant to vanish within a framework of general liberation. I argue that the idea of general liberation failed to a…
Are You There Yet
james a. steintrager is an assistant professor of comparative literature at the University of California, Irvine. He is currently completing a book on the aesthetics of inhumanity in eighteenth-century England, France,and Germany
Bentham on Liberty
Bentham
Bentham
American Pluralist Democracy
Prediction & Control versus the Narcissus Trance of Political Science
The Mind and Spirit of John Peter Altgeld
In Pursuit of the Object of Sound
Hermeneutic heresy
Translation is a topic that seems to come and go with regularity on the literary theory scene. It has most recently enjoyed a vogue among comparatists, who have positioned translation as a way to renew—yet again—their discipline (see, for example, Emily Apter's The Translation Zone). Translation has also been discussed in the context of feminism, deconstruction, and postcolonial studies. With respect to the last grouping, the writings of Niranjan…
Prediction & Control versus the Narcissus Trance of Political Science
The Mind and Spirit of John Peter Altgeld
Prediction & Control versus the Narcissus Trance of Political Science
American Pluralist Democracy
Bentham
Bentham
Bentham on Liberty
Are You There Yet
james a. steintrager is an assistant professor of comparative literature at the University of California, Irvine. He is currently completing a book on the aesthetics of inhumanity in eighteenth-century England, France,and Germany
Liberating Sade
In the 1960s, both high theory and popular culture used the Marquis de Sade to link concerns about violence and social repression with an investment in sexual repression in the psychoanalytic sense. While Sade's writings suggest the incompatibility of complete sexual freedom with political emancipation, this apparent contradiction was meant to vanish within a framework of general liberation. I argue that the idea of general liberation failed to a…
Hermeneutic heresy
Translation is a topic that seems to come and go with regularity on the literary theory scene. It has most recently enjoyed a vogue among comparatists, who have positioned translation as a way to renew—yet again—their discipline (see, for example, Emily Apter's The Translation Zone). Translation has also been discussed in the context of feminism, deconstruction, and postcolonial studies. With respect to the last grouping, the writings of Niranjan…
"Let's Have Done with the Notion of "Noise
These two essays together expose, examine, and critique the workings of "causalism," the implicit positive valuation that attaches to sonic sources with respect to musical production and audition. According to some, timbre, along with pitch, intensity, and duration, would name the fourth fundamental aspect of sounds deemed musical. But while attempts have been made to find in timbre an objectively quantifiable and measurable aspect of sound-and o…
Dissolution of the Notion of Timbre
These two essays together expose, examine, and critique the workings of "causalism," the implicit positive valuation that attaches to sonic sources with respect to musical production and audition. According to some, timbre, along with pitch, intensity, and duration, would name the fourth fundamental aspect of sounds deemed musical. But while attempts have been made to find in timbre an objectively quantifiable and measurable aspect of sound-and o…
In Pursuit of the Object of Sound
Speaking of Noise
In 1997, Jacques Attali made great claims on behalf of noise in his book Noise. Noise would be a revolutionary force within music and, indeed, society-the name of resistance to symbolic violence and "channelization." This essay examines what has happened to the discourse and the practice of noise since this moment. In the first part, the focus is on Michel Chion's writings that deal with noise-both conceptually and linguistically-across a variety…
Embodied minds and their aural imaginings
Sonic Virtuality: Sound as Emergent Perception, which grows out of Mark Grimshaw and Tom Garner’s previous collaborative research on sound in computer games, aims to provide a general account of so
Sound Objects
Dispatches to the Dead
For the past twenty years or so, the Austrian cultural theorist Robert Pfaller has been positing and analyzing the concepts of “interpassivity” (as opposed to interactivity) and the delegation of enjoyment both in sacred rituals and in relation to various media of reproduction (such as video recorders and photocopiers). Steintrager and Chow argue that Pfaller's insights into delegation as a key and understudied feature of media ecologies are part…
The Cicada’s Deafening Tymbals
In the genealogy of sound studies, the figures of Pierre Schaeffer and R. Murray Schafer have loomed large, the former bequeathing key concepts of sound objects and acousmatic listening, the latter the idea of soundscapes. Relatively neglected have been Schaeffer’s elaboration of sonic morphology and typology, as well as Schafer’s ecological impetus. This essay returns to and links these aspects of these writers’ works, focusing on the troubling …
Computer Science (9 works) · Art (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Aesthetics (6 works) · Acoustics (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Music Technology and Sound Studies (5 works) · Political science (5 works)