Polyphony, Sonic Texture and Acoustic Ecology in Cynan Jones's Stillicide

With Stillicide (2019), Cynan Jones moves away from the rural world of his previous novels to tackle the interaction between the human and the nonhuman in an unnamed city affected by climate change and riven by social unrest. The novel pivots around a severe drought that has exacerbated the inhabitants of the city as a way to concentrate on the sensory experience offered by the interface of human and nonhuman, especially celebrating the primacy of auditory perceptions. To this end, I will first focus on the overarching polyphonic organisation of the narrative and, second, on the formal strategies that specifically contribute to the disclosure of what we might call ‘sonic texture’. On the one hand, the multiplicity of voices, shifting focalisation, the erosive and transformative power of water, the constant repetitions and the interconnection of various temporal layers point to a polyphonic form that blurs the border between human and nonhuman. On the other, by means of such poetic devices as alliteration, reiteration, rhyme, onomatopoeia and prosopopoeia, Stillicide exhibits a lyrical texture where ecological degradation and a collective sense of loss are recorded and thematised.