AustLit

'‘The body is a disjointed poem of mixed metaphors and similes,’ writes Deaf author Fiona Murphy in the prelude to her memoir, The Shape of Sound. ‘The spinal cord lashes out in a wild tangle – cauda equina – the horse’s tail. Blood flows through the heart’s atrium, the communal space in ancient Roman houses where the hearth burned hot and bright.’ Meanwhile the ear ‘cradles the smallest bones in the human body – the malleus, incus and stapes – all three can sit together on your fingertip like a speck of dust.’ Their common names – hammer, anvil and stirrup – follow their shapes. When vibrated by sound, they ‘beat and thump the eardrum. In stillness their story continues, nevertheless.’ In her attention to the names of body parts, Murphy draws on her training as a physiotherapist. It is an introduction to her careful attention to the ways that bodies – and particularly her Deaf body – navigate the world, and manifest in the English language.' (Introduction)