Positive vibrations – voice, sound, and resonance as insurgency

Abstract

ABSTRACT The very idea of ‘critical language studies’ encourages one to develop a sense of criticality; that is, to interrogate the concepts that one uses, to explore the boundaries of one’s professional practice, and to push one’s thinking, if necessary, into new directions. This is typically done with the aim of contributing to epistemic as well as socio-economic justice. In this article, I think with, and through, the sociolinguistic concept of ‘voice’, seeking to move beyond its metaphorical use (as an index of agency) and linking it, explicitly, to sound and resonance, to materiality, affect and the senses. In doing so, I move beyond language, and include different sonic expressions and perceptions. The aim is to develop the broad contours of a ‘sonic criticality’. A ‘sonic criticality’ is also an ethical project: it encourages one to engage in new forms of listening (Robinson 2020), and to explore sound’s insurgent potential, its ability to unsettle and to change the world.