https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i3.012
Sonic Rebellion: Reclaiming Music as Defiance in Sarah Pinsker’s A Song for a New Day
RAKHI R S
Research Scholar
Department of English
Pondicherry University, Puducherry
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2375-0920
rakhirakzz.16@pondiuni.ac.in
DR HARPREET KAUR VOHRA
Professor
Department of English
Pondicherry University, Puducherry
https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8099-6954
hvohra@pondiuni.ac.in
Abstract: Sarah Pinsker’s A Song for a New Day depicts a post-pandemic world driven by strict government-congregation rules justified by narratives of biosecurity, terrorist attacks, and pandemic outbreaks. This paper illustrates how music can also have a political dimension, not merely serving as a means of self-expression. The protagonist, Luce Cannon, stages rebellious musical performances against authority. Her activities align with what James C. Scott discusses in “Everyday Forms of Resistance,” as she hosts illegal concerts in defiance of institutional restrictions that seek to regulate social life. Her subversive musical interventions can thus be viewed as acts of resistance. Michel de Certeau’s concept of “everyday tactics” further explains the ways in which such resistance operates within imposed structures, while Scott defines its mode of opposition. Music emerges as a catalytic force of rebellion against hegemony. Jacques Attali’s argument in Noise: The Political Economy of Music reinforces this idea, as Luce’s music becomes disruptive “noise” within an increasingly silent and regulated world. In an effort to protect her music from digital mediation that reduces it to a commodity, she preserves human connection and communal experience. Under the guise of protecting vulnerable populations, the government imposes cultural norms and restrictions on society. This study is therefore guided by the concept of revolution expressed through everyday forms of resistance. Pinsker highlights the transformative power of music to create human bonds and rescue individuals from isolation. Thus, music fosters a sense of collective belonging in a chaotic world dominated by digital mediation.
Keywords: Sarah Pinsker, Sonic Rebellion, Everyday Resistance, Surveillance, Commodification, Digital Mediation
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