Download The Representation of Silence in Text: Examples from Two Selected

The Representation of Silence in Text:
Examples from Two Selected Koans
Ming-yu Tseng*
Abstract
This paper explores how silence is represented in text, particularly in
religious text. To illustrate the relation of silence to verbal expression, a rhetoric
of silence is proposed. It consists of four points: (1) silence is a textual element
and strategy; (2) silence is a communicative act; (3) silence is as powerful as
language; (4) ways of representing silence are ways of signifying silence. Then,
by analyzing two koan texts from Ch’an/Zen writing, this paper investigates how
silence is narrated and represented in the texts and what silence might signify.
Such investigation also shows how silence, words, and narrative are interwoven in
the shaping of textuality.
Keywords： koan, narrative strateg y, silence, religious discourse, textuality,
treatment of silence in text, pragmatic -philosophical
approach
*
Assistant Professor, Department of English, National Dong Hwa University.