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The quiet ear an investigation of missing sound : a memoir

"At the hospital where Raymond Antrobus was born, a midwife snapped her fingers by his ears and gauged his response. It was his first hearing test, and he passed. For years, Antrobus lived as a deaf person in the hearing world, before he was diagnosed at the age of six. This "in-betweenness" was a s...

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Main Author: Antrobus, Raymond (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: London ; New York : Hogarth, [2025]
Edition:First edition.
Subjects:
Antrobus, Raymond.
Poets, English > 21st century > Biography.
Deaf authors > Great Britain > Biography.
Deafness > Psychological aspects.
Autobiographies.
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Summary:"At the hospital where Raymond Antrobus was born, a midwife snapped her fingers by his ears and gauged his response. It was his first hearing test, and he passed. For years, Antrobus lived as a deaf person in the hearing world, before he was diagnosed at the age of six. This "in-betweenness" was a space he would occupy in other areas of his life too. The son of a Jamaican father and white British mother, growing up in East London, it was easy for him to fall through the cracks. Growing up, he was told that he wasn't smart enough, wasn't black enough, wasn't deaf enough. It was only when he was fitted with hearing aids at the age of seven, that he began to discover his missing sounds: the high pitches of whistles, birds, alarms, the "sh, ch, ba, th" sounds in speech-all of it missing. The Quiet Ear is an attempt to fill in those missing sounds in Antrobus' own life, and how they formed his hybrid deaf identity. It's a story of a journey of finding your path when there are no signs to show the way, and a testament to the people-his parents and teachers, artists, writers, and musicians -- who helped form his language: spoken, written, and signed. It's also about becoming a father to a hearing son, and trying to know the ways in which they might understand and misunderstand one another. "-- Provided by publisher.
Physical Description:190 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN:9780593732106
0593732103
Author Notes:Raymond Antrobus is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Signs/Music, of which the title poem was published in The New Yorker. His work has won numerous prizes in the UK, where his poems are frequently taught in schools. He is also the author of two children's books, including Can Bears Ski?, which became the first story broadcast on the BBC entirely in British Sign Language. Antrobus was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and appointed an MBE. He lives in London.

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