Speech and Biopolitics

• In Event: 'Ad Bellum Purficandum’: The Therapeutic Turn in Midcentury Rhetoric and Communication Theory

Abstract

This essay traces the theoretical and practical significance ascribed to the human voice by those working within speech communication. We begin our analysis with an account of speech hygiene, a prominent movement in the 1930's and 1940's that posited that socio-political problems originated from the difficulties in socially integrating those with maladjusted personalities. Personality problems were manifested in and through the human voice and speech hygienists believed that by retraining the voice those problems could be ameliorated. We then turn to the role that the discipline played in WW II; in particular the grants awarded by the National Defense Research Committee on voice dynamics and battlefield communication. At this juncture voice plays a critical role in developing new war-fighting technologies, including the transmission of commands, voice recognition technologies and new interrogation methods, including some that would fall under the sign of torture. We conclude our analysis examining the role of the voice in emerging accounts of communication and bioethics, inspired by Levinas and Agamben, and the importance that work will have for biopolitical governance.

Authors

• Darrin Hicks, University of Denver

• Ronald Greene, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities