RURAL SOUNDS – URBAN SOUNDS: THE ACOUSMATIC RANGE OF A YOUNG MAN’S BEING IN GREAT EXPECTATIONS
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Date
2026
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Plovdiv University Press
Abstract
In the following text, I would like to suggest the hypothesis that Magwitch’s influence over Pip is an acousmatic one. My methodological platform could be called developmental acousmatic phenomenology, as far as I attempt to discuss the dynamics between subject, sound, and development in time. The strategy of analysis, according to such a platform, includes selecting moments from the novel that exemplify Magwitch’s acousmatic influence over Pip, and also, comparing rural and urban acousmatic influences and the ways in which they affect the young man. Through the methods of selection, comparison and contextualisation, I arrive at the conclusions that rural and urban sounds in the Dickensian novel Great Expectations are more like subjective attributes, coloured with, or evoking, certain memories or events, rather than simple physical facts. Additionally, hearing, as a sense, is presented as a universal sense which is able to connect and communicate other senses – for instance, visions and smells in the novel could also be heard.
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Keywords
sounds, country, city, acousmatic influence, Pip, Magwitch, Great Expectations