Silence and Subject in Modern Literature

Why does interrogation silence its object and not make it speak? Silence vs speech is a central issue in classical and modern literary works. This book studies literary representations of the power relations in which we are forced to speak using a range of texts ranging from the modern crime novel, via classics, to avant-garde plays.

Autorentext
Ulf Olsson is Professor of Comparative Literature, teaches at Stockholm University, Sweden and has also taught at University of California, Berkeley, USA and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. He has published books on Strindberg, and on contemporary Swedish literature, as well as on improvised music. Olsson also works as a literary critic.

Inhalt
Acknowledgments Introduction: Cordelia's Silence, Spoken Violence 1. The Exemplary Becomes Problematic, or Gendered Silence: Jane Austen 2. The Secrets of Silence: Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter , Musil's Tonka 3. Refusal, or The Mute Provocateurs: Bartleby Meets Yvonne 4. The Other of Monologue: Strindberg, Camus, Beckett 5. Interrogation, or Forced to Silence: Rankin, Harris, Pinter, Duras 6. Literature as Coerced Speech: Peter Handke's Kaspar 7. Epilogue: The Silence of the Sirens 8. Bibliography Index