Abstract
This paper is concentrated on the phenomenon of silence in a situation, which lacks an actual signifier: silence is renderable, although not accessible for every hearer. Different strata of silence are represented and thoroughly depicted. The author observes several historical appearances of the phenomenon of quietness: pictorial, radio silence, conventional (arbitrary) silence.
Silence is never perfect, it is only a harmony of accidental noises. Silence in the Hell-mouth tradition in folklore plays the role of semiotic relaxation time. There were devils in the seventeenth century Estonian witchcraft tradition. In cases when witches would not be quiet and revealed some parts of their identity to their enemies, e.g, through their magic spells, Satan could immediately run with them to a remota loca. Through the stages of civilization's formation, silence cast the following roles: discursive or memorial gaps, memory traumas. The symbols of local memory traumas are codes for the magical operators in the mouth of Hell: you should never disclose your name to the non-identity.
About the author
Aarne Ruben (b. 1971) is a PhD candidate at the University of Tallinn 〈aarne_ruben@hotmail.com〉. His research interests include semiotics and literature.
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
