A media history of sound recording literature from phonautogram and phonograph to talking books, books-on-tape, audiobooks, podcasts, interactive audio, and beyond. From oral tradition we trace intertwined histories of sound media and literary arts through tinfoil and wax cylinders, radio, shellac and vinyl LPs, cassette tapes, CDs, digital audio files, streaming, and apps. The course addresses concepts such as remix, adaptation, affect, embodiment, interaction, and the avant garde. Examples may include Tennyson, Dickens, Shakespeare, Kipling, Conan Doyle, Joyce, Poe, Conrad, Christie, Thomas, McLuhan, Jumanji, Serial, This American Life, The Haunting of Hill House, Audiobök and more.
Includes listening and recording components.

English 147 courses address studies in historical and contemporary media systems including orality, writing, print electronic media (telegraph, phone, radio, film, TV video, satellite communications), and digital media (the Internet, word-processing, etc.) in their relation to literary or cultural expression. Example topics include Enlightenment media, modern literature, graphic design, film and literature, and twentieth century media theory.

The course may be repeated for credit provided letter designations are different. Recent offerings include 147AB Audiobooks and Podcasts, 147GM Global Media, 147OM Ocean Media, and 147VN Visual Narrative.