Out of Sync

“At once a magisterial history of American ventriloquism and a startling reconsideration of the history of audiovisual synchronization. Sarah Rebecca Kessler brilliantly argues that ventriloquism, seemingly anachronistic in the era of electronic and digital media, continues to be taken up across phonography, television, and social media platforms. Ventriloquism informs new media techniques for audiovisual syncing—and its cultural biases haunt these media afterlives.”—Mara Mills, Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University

“In this fascinating study of contemporary forms of misdirection, Sarah Rebecca Kessler shows how attention to ‘what ventriloquism actually does’ expands and complicates our most advanced theories of ‘voice’ as inherently mediated.”—Sianne Ngai, George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor of English, University of Chicago

Sarah Rebecca Kessler is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Southern California.

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