Immer-son. Écouter aux pages des romans (Jane Eyre et Dracula)
The Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme is organising an evening event to present the book Immer-son. Écouter aux pages des romans (Jane Eyre et Dracula), due to be published by ENS Lyon in September 2026.
This 'Livres en dialogue' session will feature Anaïs Martin, the book’s author, in conversation with a journalist specialising in the subject.
Following the event, you will have the opportunity to ask our guests any questions you may have.
At a time when the adjective ‘immersive’ seems to have become a hallmark of quality for art exhibitions and digital gadgets, the study of sound’s immersive potential has nevertheless been neglected by the humanities. This book develops the concept of ‘immer-sound’ – that is, the way in which sound facilitates immersion – and argues that listening to a novel is just as important as reading it, by demonstrating how the writings of Charlotte Brontë and Bram Stoker stimulate readers’ auditory imagination and deepen their immersion in the fictional worlds of Jane Eyre and Dracula. The joint study of these novels and their French radio adaptations also highlights how their soundscapes come to life through a change of medium. Straddling the textualisation of sound and the sonification of text, this intermedia work thus falls within the field of sound studies, bringing to it the insights of literary and radio analysis, in order to offer a new reading of Jane Eyre and Dracula, with ears wide open.
Anaïs Martin holds the agrégation in English and a PhD in English-language studies. She also trained at the Conservatoire de musique d’Aix-en-Provence. She currently teaches at a secondary school in Aubagne and at the University of Aix-Marseille. Her research focuses on the soundscapes of Victorian literature and the way in which sound stimulates readers’ imaginations and helps them immerse themselves in fictional worlds. Having collaborated with adaptors and producers at France Culture, she draws on her observations to study strategies for adapting Victorian works for radio and to continue exploring how the sonification of text enables novels to be read in new ways.
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