How the Audiobook Got Its Groove Back, Talk by Matthew Rubery, 22 October 2020

Matthew Rubery

Michelle Levy

Jason Camlot

Zoom

Montréal, Québec

This talk was given by Matthew Rubery (Queen Mary University of London), and moderated by Michelle Levy (Simon Fraser University). What might an audiobook liberated from preconceived notions of the printed book sound like? Whereas most literary recordings seek to imitate print formats as faithfully as possible, this presentation examines a series of performances that take advantage of the audiobook’s affordances in order to go beyond merely replicating print. Drawing on source material ranging from musician memoirs to fiction by Charles Dickens and Stephen King, it considers what’s at stake when audio publishers experiment with soundtracks that go beyond the verbal description of sounds by using actual sounds. The talk was following by a Q&A session with participants.