Silence, Feminism, Power Reflections at the Edges of Sound

by Malhotra, Sheena; Carillo Rowe, Aimee

• ISBN13: 9781137002365
• ISBN10: 1137002360
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-01-25
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Silence, Feminism, Power: Reflections at the Edges of Sound interrogates the often-unexamined assumption that silence is oppressive, to consider the multiple possibilities silence enables. The equation between voice and power informs feminist theory and activism, creating an imperative that the oppressed must 'come to voice.' Alternately, this volume explores the diverse and complex ways that differently situated groups and individuals deploy power through silence. Authors engage questions like: What forms of resistance and healing do silence make possible? What alliances might be enabled by learning to read silences? Under what conditions is it productive to move between voice and silence? The book is thematically organized to explore: Intersectionality, Privilege, and Alliances; Academia and Knowledge Production; Community, Family, and Intimacy; Memory, Healing, and Power. Essays feature diverse feminist reflections on the nuanced relationship between silence and voice to foreground the creative, healing, meditative, generative and resistive power our silences engender.

Author Biography

SHEENA MALHOTRA is Professor and Chair of the Gender and Women's Studies Department at California State University Northridge, USA. She teaches on women and popular culture and has published widely in international journals including Women's Studies in Communication, South Asian Popular Culture, Poroi: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Rhetorical Analysis and Invention and Gazette: The International Journal for Communication Studies.AIMEE CARRILLO ROWE is Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Executive Director of POROI at The University of Iowa, USA. She is author of Power Lines: On the Subject of Feminist Alliances (Duke University Press, 2008) and Answer the Call: Suspended Mobilities in Indian Call Centers (with Sheena Malhorta and Kimberlee Perez, forthcoming).

Table of Contents

Still the Silence: Introductory Reflections on Silence and Power; A.C.Rowe & S.Malhotra
PART I: TRANSFORMATIVE SILENCES: INTERSECTIONALITY, PRIVILEGE, ALLIANCES

Resistant Silences; C.Keating
Between Speech and Silence: Reflections on Accountability; A.Russo
Qwe're Performances of Silence: Many Ways to Live 'Out Loud'; J.Johnson
Silence Speaks Volumes: Counter-Hegemonic Silences, Deafness, and Alliance Work; R.Levitt
PART II: LEARNING TO LISTEN: ACADEMIA, SILENCE AND RESISTANCE

Imposed Silence and the Story of the Warramunga Woman: Alternative Interpretations and Possibilities; R.Clair
Silence and Voice in a More-than-Human World; J.Bile
Inila: An Account of Opening to Sacred Knowing; S.A.De la Garza
Attuned to Silence: A Pedagogy of Presence; A.Fidyk
Hear I Meet the Silence: The Wise Pedagogue; C.Lossie
The U.S. Day of Silence: Sexualities, Silences and the Will to Unsay in the Age of Empire; G.A.Yep & S.B.Shimanoff
PART III: RECOVERING SILENCES: COMMUNITY, FAMILY, INTIMACY

Keeping Quiet: Performing Pain; D.Pollock
'3210 S. Indiana: Silence and the Meanings of Home'; F.Royster
Fences, Weapons, Gifts: Silences in the Context of Addiction; K.Acheson
My Monster and My Muse: Re-Writing the Colonial Hangover; K.Pérez
PART IV: LEGACIES OF SILENCE: MEMORY, HEALING, POWER

The Silence in My Belly; S.Malhotra
Standing in the Wake of My Father's Silence (An Alternative Eulogy); B.K.Alexander
Stitching Survival: Revisioning Silence and Expression; L.Farah
Sun Moon Silence; A.C.Rowe
Index