ABSTRACT
Critical theory is an endeavor born of crisis. In the historical materialist tradition, which emerged in response to nineteenth century social problems, the critical theorist begins by taking account of the material conditions and mode of production that enable society to reproduce itself. She then painstakingly moves outward to interrogate the institutions that preserve this mode of production, and the cultural practices that dissemble its inequities. The ecocritical theorist faces an even more monumental undertaking. Whereas historical materialism has long recognized social and ecological problems as intertwined effects of the human metabolism with nature, we have only recently come to realize the complexity and enormity of the epochal environmental crisis that we have set in motion. In this essay, I approach ecomusicology as critical reflection upon music and sound, set against the backdrop of this crisis. My aim is to situate ecomusicology within the broader critical theory tradition, which I trace from the Frankfurt School to posthumanist and new materialist social theory. After exploring intersections between these fields and recent work in ecomusicology, I propose a hybrid mode of critical hearing informed by “materialisms” both new and old and by my own work on listening practices in Japan.
