This book discusses the elusive centrality of silence in modern literature and philosophy
focusing on the writing and theory of Jean-Luc Nancy and Roland Barthes the prose of Samuel
Beckett and the poetry of Wallace Stevens. It suggests that silence is best understood
according to two categories: apophasis and reticence. Apophasis is associated with theology
and relates to a silence of ineffability and transcendence reticence is associated with
phenomenology and relates to a silence of listenership and speechlessness. In a series of
diverse though interrelated readings the study examines figures of broken silence and silent
voice in the prose of Samuel Beckett the notion of shared silence in Jean-Luc Nancy and Roland
Barthes and ways in which the poetry of Wallace Stevens mounts lyrical negotiations with forms
of unsayability and speechlessness.
