Sound and Polysemy in Film

Abstract

This article theorizes how the power of sound creates alternative meanings meant to con- firm, incorporate and even challenge dominant film narratives/paradigms. In Zimbabwe, most critical works on popular culture tend to gravitate towards musical lyrics without pay- ing special homage to film sound. This scenario, in a way, has created a mystery about the language conventions used by film sound in order to construct socio-cultural realities. The contention of this article therefore, is that film sound is a language, a signifier of meaning, which if exploited fully by filmmakers, has potential to construct heterogeneity in film or multiple perspectives. A theoretical thrust to this article is meant to provoke readers to come up with innovative ways of understanding how sound has unique ways of producing and re-producing internal instabilities/ turbulences that interrogates power by exploring human feeling and human perceptions towards social change.