De schuchterheid voorbij: Ervaringen van hardhorendheid en hoortoeters

Ruben E. Verwaal

doi:10.5117/DAE2023.007.VERW

ISSN: 2589-4617
E-ISSN: 2667-2081

De schuchterheid voorbij

Ervaringen van hardhorendheid en hoortoeters
By Ruben E. Verwaal¹
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Affiliations: ¹ Durham University / Erasmus MC
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Source: De Achttiende Eeuw, Volume 55, Issue 2023, Sep 2023, p. 119 - 136
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5117/DAE2023.007.VERW
Language: Dutch
- Published online: 01 Sep 2023

Abstract

Hearing difficulties traditionally led to unequal relations and opportunities, often resulting in hidden feelings of sadness and loneliness, as well as discomfort and embarrassment. Yet in the eighteenth century, some people with a hearing difference appear to have been able to cope with these negative feelings by using ear trumpets. This article discusses hardness of hearing and acoustic aids in eighteenth-century polite society in Britain and France, arguing that the handling of a physical and visible tool such as the ear trumpet could deliver mental transformations. Investigating the experiences of those using ear trumpets, as well as the perceptions of their interlocutors at salons, societies, academies, and church congregations, this paper argues that such social contexts accepted this new technology as a means for hard-of-hearing members to actively participate. Despite the difficulties, people of a certain status successfully incorporated their hearing difference into their work, or even used their ear trumpets to guide conversations, showing indifference about their hearing difficulties, or even to strategically control certain situations. Applying the recently coined ‘design model of disability’, the study of hardness of hearing and ear trumpets in eighteenth-century Europe demonstrates how acoustic prosthetics could do the work of inclusion and emotional transformation.

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