Abderrahim CHEIKH

Abstract

Abstract: Stephen Crane’s works, and in particular The Red Badge of Courage, explore the auditory dimensions of war, depicting battle as a “chaotic symphony” of sounds. This paper explores the significance of the language of sound in Crane’s vision of war as represented through War’s stream of adjectives, nouns and verbs that recount the sounds of weapons, the rumble of drums, and of screams. By also invoking auditory imagery, the narrative advances not only the storytelling but the psychological and emotional involvement of the reader with the terrors of war. This paper aims at exploring the “symphony of war” Crane constructs with his use of sound-related words and determine how such auditory illustrative use creates the conditions for conveying the horror of war. Qualitative content analysis is used as the methodology applied in analyzing and interpreting adjectives, nouns, and verbs related to sound from Crane’s work based on literary auditory. Results demonstrate how Crane’s soundscapes stress the way war is overwhelming and dehumanizing through his narrative. The precise way he organizes words that relate to sound shows how tension and emotional disintegration progresses during battle, offering more profound glimpses into the trauma of war. Future research is initiated across cultures that connect auditory imagery on trauma-related collective memory in war literature. Expanding the approach to other authors and conflicts would allow scholars to more fully explore the universality and variability of the “war symphony” across literary traditions. Keywords: Auditory imagery, sound-related words, symphony of war, trauma, The Red Badge of Courage