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rangan
saxena
Thinking with an Accent casts accent as a powerfully coded yet underexplored
mode of perception shaping our global cultural economy. Theorizing accent srinivasan
as a mediatized object, an interdisciplinary method, and an embodied
sundar
Toward a New Object, Method, and Practice
practice, this volume invites readers to think with an accent—to practice a
dialogical, multisensorial inquiry that can yield transformative modalities of t
knowledge, action, and care. h
“There is no such thing as a voice without an accent, yet theories of voice i
n
still treat accents as the exception. Thinking with an Accent teaches us how
to begin from accented voices and provides a panoply of tools for imagining, k
working with, building on, analyzing, and desiring accents.” i
n
jonathan sterne, author of Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology
of Impairment g
“This creative and ambitious collection encourages us to reconsider our own w
accented lives and how they structure our social, digital, and literary worlds.
i
An essential book.”
t
dolores inés casillas, author of Sounds of Belonging: U.S.
h
Spanish-Language Radio and Public Advocacy
“This book teaches us that the accent must be understood not as an onto- a
logical reality but as a co-constituted happening. The result is that accent n
becomes something to think with, not just to study. Straightforward, well
a
argued, and a pleasure to read.”
kareem khubchandani, author of Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife c
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pooja rangan is Associate Professor of English and Film and Media
e
Studies at Amherst College and author of Immediations: The Humanitarian
n
Impulse in Documentary. akshya saxena is Assistant Professor of English
at Vanderbilt University and author of Vernacular English: Reading the t
Anglophone in Postcolonial India. ragini tharoor srinivasan is Assistant
Professor of English at Rice University. pavitra sundar is Associate
T
Professor of Literature at Hamilton College and author of Listening with o
w
a Feminist Ear: Soundwork in Bombay Cinema. a
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d
California Studies in Music, Sound, and Media, 3 M a
A Fletcher Jones Foundation Book in Humanities eth Ne
o w
d
university of california press | www.ucpress.edu , O
a
n b
cover design: Michelle Black d je EDITED BY
cover illustration: Sameer Farooq, 24 Affections (detail), monoprint, 2019. P ct
Photo: Sean Weaver. From Terma, Images from the Ear or Groin or Somewhere, ra , POOJA RANGAN · AKSHYA SAXENA
in collaboration with Jared Stanley. ct
i
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e RAGINI THAROOR SRINIVASAN · PAVITRA SUNDAR
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos,
University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program.
Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.
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from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and
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The publisher and the University of California Press Foundation
gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Fletcher Jones
Foundation Imprint in Humanities.
Thinking with an Accent
CALIFORNIA STUDIES IN MUSIC, SOUND, AND MEDIA
James Buhler and Jean Ma, Series Editors
1. S tatic in the System: Noise and the Soundscape of American Cinema Culture, by Meredith C.
Ward
2. H earing Luxe Pop: Glorification, Glamour, and the Middlebrow in American Popular Music,
by John Howland
3. Th inking with an Accent: Toward a New Object, Method, and Practice, edited by Pooja Rangan,
Akshya Saxena, Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, and Pavitra Sundar
Thinking with an Accent
Toward a New Object, Method, and Practice
Edited by
Pooja Rangan, Akshya Saxena,
Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, and Pavitra Sundar
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2023 by The Regents of the University of California
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND license.
To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses.
Suggested citation: Rangan, P., Saxena, A., Srinivasan, R. T., and
Sundar, P. (eds.) Thinking with an Accent: Toward a New Object, Method,
and Practice. Oakland: University of California Press, 2023.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.148
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rangan, Pooja, editor. | Saxena, Akshya, editor. |
Srinivasan, Ragini Tharoor, editor. | Sundar, Pavitra, editor.
Title: Thinking with an accent : toward a new object, method, and practice /
edited by Pooja Rangan, Akshya Saxena, Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan,
and Pavitra Sundar.
Other titles: California studies in music, sound, and media ; 3.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2023] |
Series: California studies in music, sound, and media ; 3 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022033650 | ISBN 9780520389731 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780520389748 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Accents and accentuation. | English language—
Pronunciation by foreign speakers. | English language—Social aspects.
Classification: LCC P231.T48 2023 | DDC 414/.6—dc23/eng/20220901
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022033650
32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Foreword: Accent Matters ix
On Editorship and Authorship xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction: Thinking with an Accent 1
Pooja Rangan, Akshya Saxena, Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, and Pavitra Sundar
Part ONE: ACCENT AS EXPERTISE
1. Taking Accents beyond Identity Politics? Thinking Through
Two Paradigms 23
Rey Chow
2. Accent Reduction as Raciolinguistic Pedagogy 37
Vijay A. Ramjattan
3. From “Handicap” to Crip Curb Cut: Thinking Accent with Disability 54
Pooja Rangan
4. “Accented” Latinx Textese: Bilingual Scriptural Economies and
Digital Literacies 73
Sara Veronica Hinojos
5. Everything Is Accented: Labor and the Weight of Things Unsaid 95
Anita Starosta
