Coda

Abstract

AbstractThe power of silence combines its role as the repository of potential and the extinguisher of capacity, not in dichotomous mode but as a series of scattered and disjointed occurrences and weightings. Its key contribution to political life, as to other spheres, is indispensable, adding texture to the fundamental features it embellishes. It does do while remaining permanently ambiguous and indeterminate, as does the political thinking with which it intersects and that it sporadically obscures. The study of silence emphasizes the connectivity, interdependence, and complexity of abutting disciplines whose frames of reference frequently overlap, even as diverse professional languages are marshalled to interpret them. Ultimately, silence’s frequent double-bind of concealing itself might be its greatest political master-stroke.