Abstract
This concluding chapter recapitulates my main observations about the novel and the multispecies soundscape, and identifies some of their broader implications as well as remaining limitations. Looking back at the previous chapters, I explain how my argument supports recent calls to reconsider the notions of character and setting, to revalue the practice of description, and to promote hope rather than environmental despair. It also flags certain shortcomings, singling out two topics in particular that have not received the attention they deserve, namely the facts that a multispecies perspective should look and listen beyond the animal ‘kingdom’ and consider the cultural meanings of plants too, and that nonhuman sounds are experienced not just as intriguing vibrations but also and simultaneously as monotonous, mechanical repetitions.
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De Bruyn, B. (2020). Conclusion: Sonic Curiosity at the End of the World. In: The Novel and the Multispecies Soundscape. Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30122-4_7
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