Genres of Listening: An Ethnography of Psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires
Genres of Listening: An Ethnography of Psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires
by Xochitl Marsilli-Vargas
Duke University Press, 2022
ISBNs
Cloth: 978-1-4780-1591-8
Paper: 978-1-4780-1855-1
eISBN: 978-1-4780-9269-8 (OA)
eISBN: 978-1-4780-2315-9 (standard)
About the Book
In Genres of Listening Xochitl Marsilli-Vargas explores a unique culture of listening and communicating in Buenos Aires. She traces how psychoanalytic listening circulates beyond the clinical setting to become a central element of social interaction and cultural production in the city that has the highest number of practicing psychologists and psychoanalysts in the world. Marsilli-Vargas develops the concept of genres of listening to demonstrate that hearers listen differently, depending on where, how, and to whom they are listening. In particular, she focuses on psychoanalytic listening as a specific genre. Porteños (citizens of Buenos Aires) have developed a “psychoanalytic ear” that emerges during conversational encounters in everyday interactions in which participants offer different interpretations of the hidden meaning the words carry. Marsilli-Vargas does not analyze these interpretations as impositions or interruptions but as productive exchanges. By outlining how psychoanalytic listening operates as a genre, Marsilli-Vargas opens up ways to imagine other modes of listening and forms of social interaction.
About the Author
Xochitl Marsilli-Vargas is Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Emory University.
Reviews
-- Chris Batterman Cháirez Sound Studies
-- Jeremy A. Rud Linguistic Anthropology
-- Kristin E. Yarris Bulletin of Latin American Research
-- Sergio E. Visacovsky American Ethnologist
"Marsilli-Vargas’s book is an exemplary ethnography, weaving together rich empirical materials with a deeply contextualised case-study to develop novel theoretical insights on a topic of central concern to Sound Studies. . . . Marsilli-Vargas develops important conceptual tools for a nuanced understanding of listening while making a significant contribution to fields such cultural history, Latin American Studies, and the anthropology of sound."
-- Chris Batterman Cháirez Sound Studies
“Genres of Listening is a monumental addition to linguistic and anthropological understanding of listening that fulfills each of its promises.”
-- Jeremy A. Rud Linguistic Anthropology
“The book helps us to understand this culture as an urban phenomenon and to study it along with coexisting discourses and cultures of self-care that live beyond the capital of Argentina. . . . Genres of Listening will provide the readers with a deep understanding of the undergoing transformations in Argentina’s more intimate relationships.”
-- Kristin E. Yarris Bulletin of Latin American Research
“Genres of Listening is a valuable study, a very important first step that will be useful for those who research and teach in postgraduate courses about the Argentine middle classes and their ways of thinking and acting.”
-- Sergio E. Visacovsky American Ethnologist
"All in all, this book produces a perceptive conception of a key aspect in the constitution of a culture while developing a theory that fills a blind spot in the literature through its unique attention to communication beyond words."
-- Gil Hizi Anthropological Quarterly
-- Gil Hizi Anthropological Quarterly
"[Marsilli-Vargas's] meticulous descriptions of 'everyday psychoanalysis' in Argentina . . . makes the book a worthwhile read."
-- Victor Stout Exertions
-- Victor Stout Exertions
Tags
Genres, Listening, Buenos Aires, Methodology, Psychological aspects, Psychology, Latin America, Cultural & Social, Social aspects, Anthropology, Social Science, History
Open Access Information
Label: Emory University
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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