In the Handbuch Sound edited by Daniel Morat and Hansjakob Ziemer, which is now available both as eBook and hardcover, my article on
provides a survey of the wide and sprawling interdisciplinary landscape of ‘silence research’ with a special focus on the subject’s political dimensions. After an overview over various approaches and empirical fields, the contribution argues for the need for a stronger analytical integration of two aspects that have hitherto mostly been considered separately: the spectrum of cultural meanings of silence on the one hand and the pragmatics of its use as a particular mode of language on the other.
Theo Jung 