Dramatic Theories of Voice in the Twentieth Century By Andrew Ki ...

with the critical realist program, I deny the positivist assessment that theories and practices of the twentieth century sprang independent of causal factors and predominantly through the will of active agents. I likewise deny the social constructivist argument that any approach we take to history will yield relative results based in the conceptual system we adopt rather than in a verifiable reality. Embracing the premises of critical realism, I accept that a verifiable reality exists and can be known and that the sounds of the human voice compose a tangible component of that reality. I recognize that the theories of voice and the vocal practices of the twentieth century represent contingent effects that erupted from the causal interplay of material factors, social relationships, aesthetic considerations, and individual agency. But despite their contingency and their sociohistorical conditioning, the theories of voice generated in the twentieth century also represented sincere attempts to understand and explain the voice within the matrix of our lived experience. Therefore, in light of the fact of our shared reality, I do not believe that the theories are all equal but rather that some should be more successful than others in explaining the voice as a real phenomenon relevant to us as thinking, speaking, and interacting creatures. Because we ascribe the voice meaning and use it to conduct real tasks, including performance, we benefit from a comprehension of the voice that attempts to resolve competing claims and accommodate as much of the evidence as possible.

Definitions

Strictly speaking, the human voice is a sound generated by an anatomical process. When the vocal folds of the human larynx contract and impede the flow of air expelled by the lungs, they begin to vibrate and produce an audible sound known as phonation, a term that descends from the ancient Greek phon, which means both “voice” and “sound.” The sound amplifies when it resonates within the hollow spaces of the throat, mouth, and nasal cavity. The different speech sounds of human language result when we shape or interrupt phonation using our lips, teeth, tongue, palate, throat, and nasal cavity. At their most elemental level,