La escucha actual

Abstract

In La escucha actual, Antonio Méndez Rubio, a poet, essayist, and university professor, explores a hitherto little explored field: listening. Contrary to the widespread prejudice that reduces listening to a passive form of reception, the author highlights the fundamental activity that distinguishes it as a critical and creative practice. In doing so, he invokes the social and political dimension of what he calls the “social ear” and shows how it is shaped by and actively intervenes in power relations. The potential of listening lies in its genuine openness to (the) other(s), which turns it into a central element of community life. In times of visual and auditive overstimulation, the task of making listening heard and defending it against the siege of culture industry and large corporations is of great urgency. The author counters this form of social deafness with a listening that is both sensitive and disobedient, receptive, and combative.