Sound Politics. Sonic Agency and Social Order in Early Modern Zurich

The article analyses the political dimension of acoustic practices in early modern Zurich. It combines three case studies on the sonic order of everyday life, on the sensory economy of political ritual in the Zurich Schwörsonntag and on the auditory perception of political crisis during the Helvetic revolution with methodological reflections on the historiography of sound politics. The article proposes an analytical framework for the study of urban sensory politics and the formation of an early modern public sphere focusing upon the particular «distribution of the sensible» (Jacques Rancière) that set the stage for «performative politics» (Judith Butler) of sound within an early modern «presence society» (Rudolf Schlögl).