Listening to War

Abstract

Dedication Note on Transliteration Introduction: Composing Thoughts on Sound and Violence -In Lieu of an Epigraph: Sound-centered Memories of Operation Iraqi Freedom -The Belliphonic -Intellectual Predecessors -A Necessary Detour -Approaches and Challenges Fragment #1: The Presence of Mind to Save an Ear: Ali's Story Section I: Sonic Materiel Chapter 1: Belliphonic Sounds and Indoctrinated Ears: The Elements of Wartime Audition -Charting the Belliphonic -Listening, Structure, and Positionality -Vehicular Sounds -Communications -Civilian Sounds -Weapons Chapter 2: Mapping Zones of Wartime (In)audition -The Zone of the Audible Inaudible -The Narrational Zone -The Tactical Zone -The Trauma Zone -A Complicating Factor: Iraqi Civilian Auditors -Another Complicating Factor: Sound and Psychological Trauma -Conclusion Fragment #2: Stealth and Improvisation in the Desert: Jason's Story Fragment #3: Loudly Searching in the Resonant Darkness: The Anatomy of a Nighttime House Raid Section II: Structures of Listening, Sounding, and Emplacement Introduction to section II Chapter 3: Auditory Regimes -Ideals of Military Audition -National Audition -Oblique Indoctrination of Belliphonic Ears -Situational Awareness -The Inclusive Auditory Regime of Iraqi Civilians -Auditory Literacy, Competence, Virtuosity -Incommensurability Chapter 4: Sonic Campaigns -Sound (and Violence) -Violence (and Sound) -The Omnidirectionality of Sound and Violence -Sonic Campaigns Chapter 5: Acoustic Territories -Emplacement, Displacement, Transplacement -Sound and Territoriality -The Virtual Acoustic Territory of Recorded Sound -The Radiant Acoustic Territories of Wartime -The Resonant Acoustic Territories of Baghdad -The Resonant Acoustic Territory of the body -Life at the Intersection of Regime, Campaign and Territory Fragment #4: Fatal Mishearing Section III: Music, Mediation, and Survival Chapter 6: Mobile Music in the Military -Introducing the Wartime iPod -A Century of Recorded Music on the Battlefield -iPods in the Iraq War -Amping Up, Staying Focused, Cooling Down: Technologies of Self-regulation in Combat -Moving Bodies, Loosening Tongues, Adjusting Crosshairs: Technologies for Manipulating Others in Combat -Concluding Thoughts Fragment #5: From " to ": A Conversation about Music in the Military Fragment #6: Keeping the Music Turned Down Low: Shymaa's Story Chapter 7: A Time of Troubles for Iraqi Music -Iraq's Musical Legacy -Post-invasion Challenges -Political Violence -Sectarian Violence -U.S. Forces Targeting Music -The Attenuated Acoustic Territory of Iraqi Musical Practice Conclusion: The Amplitude of Violence Fragment #7: Listening as Poiesis: Tareq's Story Acknowledgments Glossary Works Cited Index