Abstract

This essay is a study of The Shadows (2018), a series produced by Kaitlin Prest and Phoebe Wang for CBC Podcasts. I situate the work in the framework of Prest’s career after her podcast The Heart, and argue that The Shadows crystallises a set of conventions about “audio fiction” that set it apart from “audio drama,” “radio features” and other similar forms, at least at this particular historical moment. These conventions include: the embrace of naive themes; a preference for retroversion or 'queer temporality'; a focus on body sound; multiplication in mixing and editing that comes across as a multiplication of voice and consciousness; the prominence of inanimate objects as orienters; and an aesthetic of suspended poignance.

Keywords: Audio Fiction, Kaitlin Prest, Phoebe Wang, The Heart, The Shadows, Love, Feminism, Sex, Radio

How to Cite:

Verma, N., (2018) “Pillow, Talk: Kaitlin Prest’s The Shadows and the Elements of Modern Audio Fiction”, RadioDoc Review 4(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.14453/rdr.24