[ecrea] CFP: Conspicuous by Absence: Exploring Silence and absence in discourse

status: CfP Call for papers
publication project
Conspicuous by Absence: Exploring Silence and absence in discourse
01.07.2017

*with apologies for cross-posting*

Call for papers: Conspicuous by Absence: Exploring silence and absence 
in discourse

Contributions are invited for an edited collection dedicated to absence 
and silence in discourse. Although it is acknowledged that absences 
contribute to the meaning of what is present, discourse analysis has 
frequently focussed on what is said and, to date, the systematic 
analysis of what is unsaid and silenced, rare or absent in linguistic 
data, has received relatively little attention. In part, this is due to 
the methodological challenges of identifying, accessing and 
investigating absences. More conceptualisation is also required on how 
we can interpret absences in discourse as meaningful. These are the 
issues that we intend to tackle in this innovative volume. The aim is to 
bring together researchers who have been investigating absence and 
silence and to present a range of proposals as to how we can identify 
and analyse what is absent (and yet structuring of the discourse). In so 
doing, the volume aims to promote the empirical study of absence and 
silence in discourse and to giv
 e them a more central position in discourse analysis.

We invite contributions from a range of perspectives, which discuss and 
demonstrate ways of analysing silence and absence empirically. We 
particularly welcome proposals which go beyond the identification of an 
absence to include reflection of how to systematically identify that 
kind of absence/silence, and how absence can actually be analysed as 
part of the interpretation of a discourse.
Topics might include, but are not limited to:
•	absence/silence as the result of suppression to support a dominant 
discourse, as a result of hegemony and the absence of alternatives
•	absence/silence as the result of the development of discourses; what 
becomes absent in a process of development from a more heterogeneous 
discourse into hegemonic narratives or what gets left out of successive 
drafts/different versions of texts and/or as the result of addressee 
orientation
•	absence/silence regarding participants in events; voices that are 
heard or absent, make themselves heard or are silenced, participants 
that strategically claim they have been silenced
•	absence/silence as the result of (the process of) translation; which 
texts get selected for translation, which aspects of discourse 
determined, culture specific or time bound meaning get ‘lost in translation’
•	absence/silence in metaphors; how does metaphorical conceptualisation 
contribute to the foregrounding and backgrounding of aspects of the 
phenomenon in question
•	absence/silence in multimodal texts; what is reinforced or silenced in 
the interplay between different modes of communication
•	metadiscourse about absence/silence; how are silences identified and 
evaluated by discourse participants, what is it that makes silence 
meaningful to them.

We invite abstract proposals of up to 300 words (excluding references) 
to be submitted to the editors Melani Schröter 
((m.schroeter /at/ reading.ac.uk)) and Charlotte Taylor 
((charlotte.taylor /at/ sussex.ac.uk)) by 30 April 2016. If accepted, we will 
ask for first drafts of chapters (up to 9000 words) to be submitted by 
1st October 2016 with view to publication with an international 
publisher (expressions of interest already in place) in 2017.

About us: The editors, Melani Schröter and Charlotte Taylor, have both 
been investigating and grappling with absence for some time. Melani is 
the author of ‘Silence and Concealment in Political Discourse’ and 
Charlotte is the co-author of ‘Patterns and Meaning in Discourse: theory 
and practice in corpus-assisted discourse studies’ both published with 
Benjamins. We run an occasional blog on the topic at 
https://absencediscourse.wordpress.com/

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