Sound As Narrative Orientation : Auditory Strategies for spatiotemporal interpretation

Sammanfattning

In recent years, the growing prominence of podcasts has renewed scholarly interest in sound as a narrative mode of experience. However, podcast research has often prioritised spoken content and production contexts over the sonic and aesthetic dimensions of audio storytelling. This thesis examines how sound functions as a narrative agent in aesthetically driven podcasts, with particular focus on how auditory structures orient listeners spatiotemporally. Building on intermedial theory, sound studies, and audionarratology, the study adopts a qualitative interpretative approach grounded in a methodology of close listening. The material consists of three podcasts selected for their sound-led narrative forms. Through a cyclical analytical model informed by hermeneutics, the analysis traces relations between sound events, spatiotemporal effects, narrative function, spatiotemporal orientation, and storyworld construction. The findings suggest that sound functions not only as a supplementary element to narration but also actively structures temporal and spatial perception. Auditory elements contribute to narrative coherence and storyworld construction by structuring temporal progression and spatial orientation in the absence of visual representation, thereby demonstrating how sound functions as a central resource for narrative meaning-making in contemporary audio media.