Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence

by Cheryl Glenn

Book Overview

In our talkative Western culture, speech is synonymous with authority and influence while silence is frequently misheard as passive agreement when it often signifies much more. In her groundbreaking exploration of silence as a significant rhetorical art, Cheryl Glenn articulates the ways in which tactical silence can be as expressive and strategic an instrument of human communication as speech itself. Drawing from linguistics, phenomenology, feminist studies, anthropology, ethnic studies, and literary analysis, Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence theorizes both a cartography and grammar of silence. By mapping the range of spaces silence inhabits, Glenn offers a new interpretation of its complex variations and uses. Glenn contextualizes the rhetoric of silence by focusing on selected contemporary examples. Listening to silence and voice as gendered positions, she analyzes the highly politicized silences and words of a procession of figures she refers to as "all the President's women," including Anita Hill, Lani Guiner, Gennifer Flowers, and Chelsea Clinton. She also turns an investigative ear to the cultural taciturnity attributed to various Native American groups--Navajo, Apache, Hopi, and Pueblo--and its true meaning. Through these examples, Glenn reinforces the rhetorical contributions of the unspoken, codifying silence as a rhetorical device with the potential to deploy, defer, and defeat power. Unspoken concludes by suggesting opportunities for further research into silence and silencing, including music, religion, deaf communities, cross-cultural communication, and the circulation of silence as a creative resource within the college classroom and for college writers.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809325837
• ISBN13: 9780809325832
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Interesting and New Ideas

The back of the book calls Glenn's work "groundbreaking," and in the field of silence, it certainly is. Although more and more scholars writing about silence now, it is an "undertheorized" area so this is really one of the first explorations of the topic in book form. Glenn offers a formulation of silence as a method of exerting power in a way similar to speech that is very generative, especially for rhetorical or literary scholars, although I imagine social justice and feminist scholars would find it useful as well as she spends a full chapter on "Real Indians" (silent Native Americans) and considerable time on women figures like Anita Hill, Lani Guinier and all of Bill Clinton's "women." These last come across at times as slightly sensational but stick with it - you will be rewarded with a very interesting take on the power of silence. A couple of things to know: 1) Silence is broadly defined here as "not speaking" - Glenn, unlike some critics, does not consider gesture to be silence, or at least she doesn't talk about it in this book. 2) Glenn's style of writing is easy to follow. She does not rely heavily on "theory" although she does mention some theorists in the beginning. 3) Most of Glenn's work here consists of case studies which make for a convincing argument. 4) It's a quick but thoroughly engaging read. Overall, I'd recommend this book highly. I don't think this is the last word on silence, or even as comprehensive as I would like it to be, but it's an excellent opening exploration.