Abstract
Emerging in the early twentieth century, wordless novels portrayed stories of working-class laborers, immigrants, and other marginalized groups overlooked and silenced by industrialization. Wordless novels visually operationalize their silence by presenting their narratives without words to call attention to hidden struggles of different social groups exploited under capitalism, colonialism, and other forms of systemic violence. This paper explores how the generative power of visual silence forces a pause in hegemonic discourses to create space for reflection and social change. Drawing from the collectivist ethos of wordless novels, wordless narrative research is introduced as a method of creative inquiry to study, investigate, and communicate personal narratives, cultural phenomenon, and emotional experiences outside normative academic discourses. An excerpt of the author’s current project is presented to exemplify how wordless narrative research uses silence as a productive fissure that disrupts the status-quo and creates space for other ways of knowing.
Recommended Citation
Horwat, Jeff
(2022)
"Silent Interruptions: Democratizing Academic Discourse through Wordless Narrative Research,"
Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal: Vol. 7:
Iss.
1, Article 8.
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/atj/vol7/iss1/8
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