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2006-2007 Fellows

Jonah Willihnganz

Stanford University
Program in Writing and Rhetoric

Jonah Willihnganz is a Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford. He is the author of several essays on sound and modernism, including pieces on Kenneth Burke, Henry Roth, and Richard Wright. His current writing and teaching focus on the experience of radio.

Project Summary

"The Sound of Modernity: Orson Welles and the Voice of Radio" will examine how the human voice emerged as a powerful site of struggle in America during the 1930s and 40s. Building on previous research on period fiction, the project turns to radio, particularly the radio of Orson Welles, and pursues one basic question: what can the dramas for the disembodied voice teach us about the changing place of sound and the human voice in modern, mediatized culture?