Abstract
This bibliographic essay seeks to shed light on the productive character of the act of silencing, as well as of what can be said through expedients other than the spoken word - looks, gestures, pauses. Therefore, we propose the joint reading of three works: Life and Words, by Veena Das; Bearing Witness, by Fiona Ross; and Haunting the Korean Diaspora, by Grace Cho. Our choice concerns the quality expressed by the three ethnographies in elevating silence to a heuristic level and, thereby, contradicting the representations of silence as the realm of the unknowable, the lack or absence of language. By recomposing these images and figurations, we aim to highlight other modalities and paths towards an ethnography of silence that serves as inspiration for researchers whose empirical fields demand attention both to the words spoken, and the intricacies through which one actively chooses to keep silent.
Key words:
Silence; Violence; Trauma; Gender; Ethnography