Silent Revolution: Silence as a form of Female Resistance on March 06-09, 2025 in Philadelphia, United States

In her seminal work, Oscillation Between Power and Denial (1981), Julia Kristeva presents a compelling argument: “Estranged from language, women are visionaries, dancers who suffer as they speak” (167). This statement encapsulates the prevalent association of women with the unspoken, the unsaid, and the ineffable, contrasting with men’s more frequent link to language and the act of speaking. Throughout history, women have been denied the full resources of language, often forced into a state of silence. However, second-wave French feminists have offered a fresh interpretation of blank pages, gaps, borders, spaces, silences, and lacunae within discourse. They propose that these rhetorical devices create a new, liberating space for women (Xavière Gauthier). Therefore, silence should not be seen as an emptiness dependent on lack or absence but rather as a presence deserving recognition.

The silence of women used to signify their exclusion from, or limited participation in, the intellectual, social, and public spheres. Nevertheless, women in literature and life need not be perceived as passive or absent; they can be seen as active subjects of the gaze rather than mere objects. The interior life of women is not beyond observation and articulation; it is expressed through both language and silence. Indeed, silence can articulate meaning without the use of words. This critically re-evaluates the silent observer’s role as conventionally perceived and defined in literature and life. As a literary genre, the novel is particularly well-suited for probing the inner life, facilitating the creation of feminine spaces through the narrator’s engagement with the reader.

For female novelists, silence often represents a narrative space for dreaming, thinking, feeling, listening, and questioning women. These silences transform into rituals of truth, emerging from an inner stance of self-resistance. In contrast, male novelists acknowledge feminine silences but tend to interpret them in a reductive manner, viewing silence as a sign of intellectual inferiority and societal exclusion. However, silence is a space where female consciousness manifests itself, where women infuse silence with a positive narrative of presence. This interpretation challenges the oppressive connotations traditionally associated with women’s silence by male authors, further underscoring the need for a redefinition.

This panel seeks papers in literature that explore the concept of women's silence as a form of self-resistance and a manifestation of female consciousness in female-authored works while challenging traditional perceptions and their reductive interpretations in male-authored works.