The Lyrical Literature of Distant Listening

Distant listening—a practice involving the capture of radio stations abroad and educated guesses about foreign languages and identification signals—meant a great deal to radio’s early listeners, many of whom were seduced by the aura of mystery surrounding sounds and voices originating from other countries and other parts of the globe. The radio journalism that flourished during the 1920s offers a full record of the craze, with numerous columns seeking to train wireless fans in the art of avoiding interferences and appreciating foreign stations. Building on recent scholarship by Simon Potter on distant listening and the BBC, and by Rebecca Scales on interwar French radio, this article examines how writers in France romanticized the figure of the distant listener during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The article contextualizes, then discusses a significant body of prose, poems, and journalistic essays by Fernand Divoire, Suzanne Malard, and Pierre Mac Orlan in which distant listening is the primary subject-matter. Taking into account their invocations of sovereignty, conquest, and invasion, the article shows that their lyrical representations of radio have a subtle political dimension, fueled by wider anxieties about national sovereignty, rearmament, and appeasement, and about the effectiveness of radio as a tool of propaganda as well as social cohesion. The article discusses Divoire’s, Malard’s, and Mac Orlan’s respective affiliations with nationalist and authoritarian currents running through the French right and concludes with a consideration of their respective wartime trajectories.