Silence in Dispute

Abstract

Over the past several decades, scholars in communication and other fields working from various paradigmatic and cultural perspectives have found themselves increasingly in opposition over the nature of silence—its meanings, the values that it holds for the people who perform and perceive it, and the ways in which it is used. This chapter reviews recent and germinal literature on silence organized according to dialectical thinking, which allows the inclusion of contradictory definitions of silence, negative and positive perceptions of silence, and performances of silence fulfilling various functions that signify both power and lack of power. The chapter demonstrates that, for a thorough understanding of the nature of silence, a “both/and” approach seems more effective than an “either/or” approach and that studies of silence must be evaluated from within the paradigm in which they were conducted.