Ru
EnL. Mirskaya, V. Pigulevskiy
A voice in the space of culture
Comprehension a voice in the symbolic space of culture allows us to understand the determinacy of verbal communication within a shared historical worldview. Language develops gradually as mimic, analogical, and symbolic expression (E. Cassirer). Voice acquires a material texture in the form of phonetic language. Life-filling is expressed as speech and song, and embodied as writing. Voice is the essential connection between logos and phone (J. Derrida). The aesthetic “dimensions” of speech are eloquence and song, while the aesthetic “imprint” of voice is calligraphy. Hearing is linked to voice and environmental sounds. Through hearing, the sounds of the universe are differentiated, signified, and become psychic images.
The article examines two stages in the conjugation of voice and hearing. In the sacred chronotope, audio-tactile perception dominates, predetermined by the hierarchy: Cosmos – Dwelling – Man. Voice and auditory perception are split into everyday speech and sound rituals. The possibility of magical influence is determined by the syncretism of name and thing: by possessing names, a person verbally influences objects and natural forces. Specially marked sounds emerge. In the mundane chronotope, audiovisual perception dominates, facilitated by the internalization of the phonetic alphabet. This shifts a person from the magical space of sound to the neutral visual world. Literary cultures are characterized by a flat – linear and sequential – codification, which limits experience. Print and mass media facilitate an external expansion of the senses, with audiovisual perception dominating. The previously auditory perception of sacred reality gives way to the subjectivity of the body, immersed in mundane reality. Therefore, voice and hearing appear as indicators of the depth and superficiality of our thinking.
Key words
voice, hearing, rhetoric, singing, writing, audio-tactile perception, audio-visual perception.
For citation
Mirskaya L., Pigulevskiy V. A voice in the space of culture. In: South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2026. No. 1. Pp. 91–99.
