ELOQUENT RETICENCE AND NARRATIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF SILENCE IN THE 18TH CENTURY
ELOQUENT RETICENCE AND NARRATIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF SILENCE IN THE 18TH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: Eighteenth-century English language conduct books for women discuss the importance of female silence in polite conversation for specific locations, situations and interlocutors. They consider silence as a non-verbal means of communication, suitable to transmit different messages, communicate virtues, cover secrets and faults. Slightly differing attitudes towards silence voiced in different texts indicate a possible tendency towards a greater acceptance of female speech as the century progresses. The need to negotiate changing ideals of femininity such as the question of female silence may have contributed to the increasing popularity of the genre.

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