Aristotle defined voice as "a particular sound made by something with a soul; for nothing which does not have a soul has a voice". Beyond Words encompasses human language outside words, the realm of the sounds of the mouth, controlled and automatic, which bring depth, meaning and confusion in equal measure to our communication as humans. Steven Connor takes in the phantasmal life of excitements, identifications and recoils associated with particular groups of vocal utterances - the guttural, the dental, the fricative and the sibilant - and reveals our beliefs, myths and responses to the growls, stutters, ums and ahs of everyday language and exchange.

Author Biography

Steven Connor is Grace 2 Professor of English at the University of Cambridge, UK, and the author of numerous Reaktion books, including A Philosophy of Sport (2011).