Discourse and Silencing
Representation and the language of displacement
Editor
Silencing is not only a physically coercive act. It is also an act of language involving forms of selection, representation and compliance. Discourse and Silencing weaves together theories and examples of discourse from different disciplines in order to put forward a theory of silencing in language: that discursive systems filter, represent and displace types of knowledge into other forms of expression.
Each chapter of the book analyses examples of silencing through discourse in various social and political fields. The examples cover courtroom trials, government censorship, domestic violence, marital conversations, penal institutions, news media, and political rhetoric. They cover societies ranging from Eastern and Central Europe, Canada and the U.S. to New Zealand and Japan. The contributors clarify the difference between chosen silences and the silencing that, as a practice, seeks to limit, alter or de-legitimise another’s discourse. The book also examines the continuous resistances and shifts in discourse and silencing within the social and political frameworks in which interlocutors negotiate their relations to each other.
Each chapter of the book analyses examples of silencing through discourse in various social and political fields. The examples cover courtroom trials, government censorship, domestic violence, marital conversations, penal institutions, news media, and political rhetoric. They cover societies ranging from Eastern and Central Europe, Canada and the U.S. to New Zealand and Japan. The contributors clarify the difference between chosen silences and the silencing that, as a practice, seeks to limit, alter or de-legitimise another’s discourse. The book also examines the continuous resistances and shifts in discourse and silencing within the social and political frameworks in which interlocutors negotiate their relations to each other.
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 5] 2003. x, 315 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements | p. ix
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1. Introduction: Silencing in discourseLynn Thiesmeyer | pp. 1–33
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I. Gender and the discourses of privacy
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IntroductionLynn Thiesmeyer | pp. 37–41
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2. Silencing talk of men’s violence towards womenAlison Towns, Peter Adams and Nicola Gavey | pp. 43–77
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3. Conversational styles and ellipsis in Japanese couples’ conversationsShoko Okazaki Yohena | pp. 79–110
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II. Law and institutional discourses
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IntroductionLynn Thiesmeyer | pp. 113–118
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4. Quiet in the court: Attorneys’ silencing strategies during courtroom cross-examinationValérie Fridland | pp. 119–138
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5. Telling bits: Silencing and the narratives behind prison wallsPatricia E. O'Connor | pp. 139–169
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III. National politics and the discourses of exclusion
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IntroductionLynn Thiesmeyer | pp. 173–177
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6. Discourses of silence: Anti-Semitic discourse in post-war AustriaRuth Wodak | pp. 179–209
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7. Silencing by law: The 1981 Polish ‘performances and publications control act’Dariusz Galasiński | pp. 211–232
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8. News discourse of Aboriginal resistance in CanadaSandra Lambertus | pp. 233–272
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IV. Coda: Performance discourse and meta-commentaries on silencing
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IntroductionLynn Thiesmeyer | pp. 275–278
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9. Political silencing: A view from Laurie Anderson’s performance artAdam Jaworski | pp. 279–296
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Notes on contributors | pp. 297–298
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Name index | pp. 299–303
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Subject index | pp. 305–315
“What is truly distinctive about this volume is Thiesmeyer's ability to weave together a variety of studies of silencing into a coherent theory and illustration of the study of silencing as a discursive means of legitimizing some forms of language over others. [...] Through all of these studies, the theme of silencing as a powerful, though often invisible, tool to shape personal, legal, social, political and national discourses becomes apparent. [...] This edited volume is a well-written, well-argued, and compelling read.”
Lisa M. Coutu, University of Washington, in the Journal of Sociolinguistics, Vol. 8:4 (2004)
Cited by
Cited by 41 other publications
Acheson, Kris
2007. Silence in Dispute. Annals of the International Communication Association 31:1 ► pp. 2 ff. 
Anthonissen, Christine
Augsten, Pauline, Sebastian Glassner & Jenni Rall
2022. The Myth of Responsibility: Colonial Cruelties and Silence in German Political Discourse. Global Studies Quarterly 2:2
Choi, Tat-Heung
2009. Power and the Subversion of Stories. Power and Education 1:3 ► pp. 282 ff.
Cooper, Travis Warren
2017. Emerging, Emergent, Emergence: Boundary Maintenance, Definition Construction, and Legitimation Strategies in the Establishment of a Post‐Evangelical Subculture. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 56:2 ► pp. 398 ff.
Downey, Heather, Guin Threlkeld & Jeni Warburton
2013. How are ageing farmers constructed in the draft Murray Darling basin plan and immediate media reports?. Rural Society 23:1 ► pp. 87 ff.
du Plessis, Erik Mygind
2022. ‘Be a model, not a critic’: Self-help culture, implicit censorship and the silent organization. Organization 29:1 ► pp. 83 ff.
Duncan, Philip T.
2014. REMEMBERING THE FUTURE. Critical Discourse Studies 11:4 ► pp. 416 ff.
Ellece, Sibonile Edith
2011. “Be a fool like me”: Gender construction in the marriage advice ceremony in Botswana – a critical discourse analysis. Agenda 25:1 ► pp. 43 ff.
Frei, Raimundo
2020. “In my home nobody spoke about religion, politics or football”: Communicative silences among generations in Argentina and Chile. Memory Studies 13:4 ► pp. 570 ff.
Freire, Juan A. & M. Garrett Delavan
2021. The fiftyfication of dual language education: one-size-fits-all language allocation’s “equality” and “practicality” eclipsing a history of equity. Language Policy 20:3 ► pp. 351 ff.
Garbutt, Joanna
2018. The Use of No Comment by Suspects in Police Interviews. In Exploring Silence and Absence in Discourse, ► pp. 329 ff.
Hansen, Ejvind
2021. Silence Outside the Repressive Paradigm: Silence as a Condition for Public Exchanges. Critical Horizons 22:3 ► pp. 233 ff.
Hansen, Ejvind
2022. Searching for the fourfold in critical discourse analysis. Philosophy & Social Criticism ► pp. 019145372211455 ff.
Hydle, Ida
2006. An Anthropological Contribution to Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies. Contemporary Justice Review 9:3 ► pp. 257 ff.
Jaworski, Adam
2014. Metrolingual art: Multilingualism and heteroglossia. International Journal of Bilingualism 18:2 ► pp. 134 ff.
Jezierska, Katarzyna
2022. Incredibly loud and extremely silent: Feminist foreign policy on Twitter. Cooperation and Conflict 57:1 ► pp. 84 ff.
Kiepek, Niki C., Brenda Beagan, Debbie Laliberte Rudman & Shanon Phelan
2019. Silences around occupations framed as unhealthy, illegal, and deviant. Journal of Occupational Science 26:3 ► pp. 341 ff.
Lima, João Paulo Resende de, Silvia Pereira de Castro Casa Nova & Elisabeth de Oliveira Vendramin
2023. Sexist academic socialization and feminist resistance: (de)constructing women’s (dis)placement in Brazilian accounting academia. Critical Perspectives on Accounting ► pp. 102600 ff.
Markovikj, Nenad
2023. Political Parties and the Trials of Democracy. In Macedonia’s Long Transition, ► pp. 111 ff.
Marković, Jelena
2020. The Silence of Fear, Silencing by Fear and the Fear of Silence. Narodna umjetnost 57:1 ► pp. 163 ff.
Moran, Claire & Christina Lee
2018. ‘Everyone wants a vagina that looks less like a vagina’: Australian women’s views on dissatisfaction with genital appearance. Journal of Health Psychology 23:2 ► pp. 229 ff.
Nadan, Yochay, Galia Weinberg-Kurnik & Adital Ben-Ari
2016. The political dimension of multicultural social work education. Journal of Social Work 16:3 ► pp. 362 ff.
Okeke-Ihejirika, Philomina, Sophie Yohani & Claire McMenemy
2018. Support Programs for Women Survivors of Sexualized Gender-Based Violence From African Conflict Zones: A Contextual Review. SAGE Open 8:2 ► pp. 215824401878434 ff.
Pangastuti, Yulida
2023. The (Dis-)Appearance of “(M)others”: The Roles of International Development Organizations on the Discourses of Women in Indonesia’s Early Childhood Education Programs. In Education in Indonesia [Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, 70], ► pp. 17 ff.
Schröter, Melani
2022. Between Saying and Not Saying. Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 52:4 ► pp. 591 ff.
Schweiger, Elisabeth
2022. Fighting silence covert warfare and the uphill battle against the unsaid. European Journal of International Relations 28:1 ► pp. 110 ff.
Schweiger, Elisabeth & Aoife O’Leary McNeice
2020. Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen and the (In)ability to Speak International Law. In International Law's Collected Stories, ► pp. 17 ff.
Shukrun-Nagar, Pnina
2020. The right to speak and the request to remain silent: who owns politicians’ Facebook pages?. Israel Affairs 26:1 ► pp. 26 ff.
Swim, Janet K., Kristen M. Eyssell, Erin Quinlivan Murdoch & Melissa J. Ferguson
2010. Self-Silencing to Sexism. Journal of Social Issues 66:3 ► pp. 493 ff.
Thiesmeyer, Lynn
2009. What's Millennial about the MDGs? Discursive Boundaries of Public Health in Southeast Asia. Journal of Health Management 11:1 ► pp. 15 ff.
Towns, Alison J. & Peter J. Adams
2009. Staying quiet or getting out: Some ideological dilemmas faced by women who experience violence from male partners. British Journal of Social Psychology 48:4 ► pp. 735 ff.
Towns, Alison J. & Peter J. Adams
2018. Discursive Psychology and Domestic Violence. In Discourse, Peace, and Conflict [Peace Psychology Book Series, ], ► pp. 49 ff.
Towns, Alison J., Christy Parker & Phillip Chase
2012. Constructions of masculinity in alcohol advertising: Implications for the prevention of domestic violence. Addiction Research & Theory 20:5 ► pp. 389 ff.
Valdez, Verónica E., Juan A. Freire & M. Garrett Delavan
2016. The Gentrification of Dual Language Education. The Urban Review 48:4 ► pp. 601 ff.
von Münchow, Patricia
2018. Theoretical and Methodological Challenges in Identifying Meaningful Absences in Discourse. In Exploring Silence and Absence in Discourse, ► pp. 215 ff.
Wodak, Ruth
Wodak, Ruth
2010. The Politics of Exclusion: The Haiderisation of Europe. In Diskursiver Wandel, ► pp. 355 ff.
Wodak, Ruth
2022. Critical Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. In Handbook of Pragmatics [Handbook of Pragmatics, ], ► pp. 426 ff.
Žákovská, Iveta
[no author supplied]
2004. Publications Received. Journal of Sociolinguistics 8:2 ► pp. 319 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General