Paper Short Abstract:

This paper will draw on fieldwork with Syrian women in Scotland to explore how corporeal articulations of silence can shape a sense of (non)home. By paying attention to embodiment, we can trace the effects of silence without excavating or disturbing what it holds.

Paper Abstract:

Silence is recognised as a multifaceted form of communication, not merely lack of speech, and yet it has often been overlooked in ethnographic work in favour of what is present or voiced. How can we explore silence without speculation? And what are the ethics of doing so, when participants have chosen to leave something unvoiced? This paper argues that silence is a corporeal experience (Frers, 2013) and as such, the body can be used to study silence(s) without excavating or disrupting it. Drawing on multilingual fieldwork exploring meanings of home with Syrian women in Scotland, this paper reflects on a particularly resonant example of silence. A participant shared a folk song in Kurdish, her mother tongue, expressing yearning and homesickness – sentiments conspicuously absent from our conversation, in which she avoided discussion of Syria or her life there. Instead of speculating why the participant avoided particular topics, I explore how paying attention to embodiment can create space for silence to be “heard”. The multiple, embodied silences between us included affective reactions, embodied refusals to speak on the aforementioned subjects, the silences (and silencings) that arise in translation between Kurdish, Arabic and English, and the conspicuous longing of the song in contrast to the participant’s resolute silence on these topics in conversation. I explore how each of these corporeal articulations of silence shape a sense of (non)home. Most crucially, this embodied approach to silence allows us to trace its effects without attempting to articulate or disturb what it holds.