Paper Short Abstract:

Starting from an analysis of the polysemous silences encountered during ethnographic research on the experiences of Basque language speakers, in this paper I propose to reflect on the embodied and intersubjective ways in which we (learn to) participate in and co-construct silences in our fieldwork interactions.

Paper Abstract:

Silence entered my research among euskaldunes (Basque language speakers/Basques) in Pamplona-Iruñea (Spain) unexpectedly. A certain reticence, whispering voices, ambiguities, euphemisms or statements that “this cannot be told” surrounded and mediated discussions of experiences related to histories of political activism, suffering and the so-called Basque political conflict. These multimodal and polysemous silences can be analysed as - but, importantly, cannot be reduced to - neither just the silence of traumatised individuals and societies (Kidron 2009), nor the silence of resistance, opposing hegemonic narratives (Mehdi 2024), and also not just the silence of secrecy around outsiders with whom sensible knowledge cannot be shared (Jones 2014). They speak of the past as well as to the present.

While I acknowledge the multifaceted nature of the unspoken, in this paper I proceed to focus on the intersubjective dimensions of silence(s) as they were enacted and expressed in my ethnographic interactions. In particular, I propose to pay attention to the ways in which we, ethnographers, come to embody, sustain and co-construct (or disrupt) silences during fieldwork as a means of apprehending what silences are and feel like. My aim is not to reveal what might lay beyond the unspoken, but rather to explore the affects and effects of silences as we experience them in relation to our research participants. Ultimately, I ask whether reflexivity on the ways in which we partake in/of silence(s) (sense an interlocutor's reticence, start to lower our voices, discern ambiguities…) may be a useful methodological and epistemological approach for grasping them.