ABSTRACT
Polly North explores how some diaries have silence thrust upon them, whilst all have silences within them. The chapter uses the word silence loosely – that is, as a figurative as well as a literal term. This chapter starts with a discussion of how diaries are silenced from without. We will note the mundane fact that diarists routinely chuck their own diaries away and, if they don’t, inheritors and other custodians sometimes do. The reasons for these acts of silencing can range from the intellectual, to the personal and the logistical. Next, the chapter considers how professional diary-readers (such as critics, researchers and/or academics) can deaden the voice of the diarist. They do so, for example, when they treat a diary as an exemplar of something that concerns them, but of which the diarist may have had few or quite different thoughts. Lastly, the bulk of the chapter addresses silences within diaries. These can be intentional or unintentional. For example, diarists may intend to leave out material as a matter of discretion. A simple memory lapse might lead to an unintended omission. More subtly, diarists cannot write down their whole being: whichever part is in the limelight casts another in shadow. The chapter ends by proposing a methodical and sympathetic approach to reading diaries.
