This exquisite book uncovers an enigmatic eloquence of silence among languages, cultures, media and art forms. Interweaving literature, linguistics and visual culture, the volume brings together a global cast of scholars to unveil how the unspoken speaks powerfully across stories, symbols and human experience.

Dat Bao, Monash University, Australia

In this original and contemporary collection, silence shimmers both as an entry point and common denominator for the exploration of a host of fascinating communicative, cultural, and creative themes. The volume makes an important new contribution, examining the representations of silence as well as its manifestations as a form of social action across a host of literary, political, visual, and artistic genres.

Adam Jaworski, Emeritus Professor, The University of Hong Kong

Explores silence in its philological dimensions: as a vehicle of meaning, a narrative device and a medium for expressing or concealing emotion.

This book explores how silence occurs across languages, literatures and cultures, fulfilling a wide range of communicative functions. It examines how silence can be collective or individual, intentional or unintentional, conveying meanings that extend beyond words and shaping interaction, perception and expression.

The volume investigates the multifaceted nature of silence from literary, semiotic and cultural perspectives, weaving together analyses that reveal its complexity across different media and contexts. The chapters address silences both within and beyond interaction, including interaction-like contexts, encompassing such diverse phenomena as animal silence, the silence of trauma and the iconic phase of silence.

Taken together, the contributions provide a comprehensive and multidimensional understanding of silence in auditory and visual forms of expression, and across varied linguistic and cultural contexts.

Les mer

This book provides a comprehensive and multidimensional understanding of silence in both auditory and visual communication, and across a wide range of languages and cultures. The chapters explore silence from literary, semiotic and cultural perspectives. 

Les mer

Boris Norman: Foreword: Silence Through the Ages 

Wolfgang Stadler and Paul Mayr: Preface: Silence Revisited 

Part 1: Literary and Narrative Silences

Chapter 1. Ornella Kraeme: Silent Sicilian Signore: An Analysis of Silence as the Unspeakable 

Chapter 2. Rachel Lehmann: (Not) Breaking the Silence: The Foreclosure of 'Rape' in Women’s Trauma Narratives

Chapter 3. Amy Singleton Adams and Patricija Corey: A Voice Like a Drum: Claiming Creative Silence in Donna Jo Napoli’s Bound

Chapter 4. Eric Kim: Speech Therapy: Animal Silence as 'Restorative Communication' in Anton Chekhov’s Toska

Chapter 5. Wolfgang Stadler: 'I Hope [Your Love] Will Break His Silence': Silences in Bethan Roberts’ My Policeman and its Russian Translation

Interlude: A Semiotic Perspective on Silence

Chapter 6. Michal Ornan-Ephratt: The Onomatopoeic Sounds of Silence

Part 2: Cultural Discourses and Representations of Silence

Chapter 7. Lucía Romero Gibu: Functions of Silences in Spanish Speakers’ Discourses on Migration-Related Challenges in Germany

Chapter 8. Melani Schröter: Visual Representations of Silence

Chapter 9. Tiyasha Sengupta: In Between Words and Panels: A Multimodal Investigation of Silence in Poober Akaash Laal

Reflections and Afterword

Rita Rieger: Instead of an Epilogue: One More Word on Silence and Silent Transformations through Reading

Paul Mayr and Wolfgang Stadler: Taking Stock – What was this Silence all About?

Les mer

Explores silence in its philological dimensions: as a vehicle of meaning, a narrative device and a medium for expressing or concealing emotion

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781788927406
Publisert
2026-06-16
Utgiver
Multilingual Matters
Vekt
510 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Dybde
16 mm
Aldersnivå
UP, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
238

Biografisk notat

Wolfgang Stadler is Professor Emeritus of Russian (applied) linguistics and subject-specific language education and a former Dean of the Faculty of Education at Innsbruck University, Austria.

Paul Mayr is a Research Associate in Romance linguistics at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.