Listening to Fiction: Tracing Sound and Loudness in Narrative

Listening to Fiction: Tracing Sound and Loudness in Narrative

Dr. Svenja Guhr (Berkeley)

This talk explores how sound shapes the structure of literary prose by tracing patterns of auditory cues and loudness across narrative texts. Combining computational scene segmentation with fine-grained sound annotation, it examines character sounds and their varying intensity: from whispers to bursts of heightened loudness. Mapping these acoustic patterns onto narrative structure reveals sound as a dynamic and measurable feature of storytelling. Rather than serving as mere background detail, sound emerges as a key mechanism through which literary fiction structures experience and brings its scenes to life.

When: 26 May 2026, 10–12 Uhr (c.t.)
Where: Hybrid. Bielefeld University, Raum UHG B2-280
Online: Join via Zoom

This talk is part of the Bielefeld research colloquium “Linguistics and Literature Revisited” (LiLi revisited).

The Bielefeld research colloquium “Linguistics and Literature revisited” (“LiLi revisited: Digitale Schnittstellenforschung zwischen Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik”, chaired by Prof. Dr. Berenike Herrmann) fosters a vibrant interface between literary studies, (computer) linguistics, psychology and the social sciences. It is a forum for the discussion of current approaches and new findings in data-driven literary and cultural studies, addressing the forms and functions of textual phenomena in socio-historical contexts. We thus complement philological and social-historical perspectives by methods and theories from Digital Humanities (DH), Computational Literary Studies (CLS), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and the Empirical Study of Literature.

In addition to joint readings and the discussion of individual guest lectures, participants present ongoing projects, conduct data sessions and test new ideas. The colloquium is aimed at all interested participants. MA and BA students (including Literary Studies, Linguistics, Computational Linguistics, Media Studies) are very welcome.

Typically, one or two talks per semester are by invited external guests. We regularly co-invite guests together with the Computational/Digital Linguistics Work Group Meeting (chaired by Prof. Dr. Hendrik Buschmeier and Prof. Dr. Sina Zarrieß) at Uni Bielefeld.