ABSTRACT
This book uses the terms 'the unsaid' and 'silence' as interchangeable. The notion of the unsaid is central to traditional discussions of literature. The book concerns those moments in a text when the silence conveys something other or more than economy of style. Modern literary theory is extremely helpful when examining the unsaid, as it encourages us to view language as far less under our control than we might once have thought. Psychology and linguistics come together: imagery and metaphor suggest the complete image held in the writer's mind, but by means of the 'polyphonic poetry' of the word and all its associations the unconscious mind of the reader is linked to that of the writer. The kind of authorial silence in the texts examines in the book can fall into different categories: intended reticence (Levi), psychological reticence (Ginzburg), disguised statements (Pavese), self-delusion (Pizzardo), self-effacement and communication by means of the visual rather than the abstract (Sanvitale).
