Whether a conscious choice or constraint, silence has always been the result of oppression, censorship, trauma, and mental or physical handicap. Its provocative and mysterious nature has always motivated readers and critics towards interpretation. The present volume offers to read and interpret silence - unexpressed emotions, thoughts, hesitations and gestures - on mainly a textual and verbal level. How is the pervasive presence of silence explained in literature and linguistics? The collected scholarly essays in this volume offer a wide range of answers. The majority of the writings are...