“I pause here” was a common refrain from feedback in class this year. Pauses, at least how I conceive them, work in multiple ways. In feedback, it is like a check up, a tool to make sure that you are on track. It can serve as a rhetorical tool, akin to silences (something we studied intensively this year) in which pauses show a sense of division then continuation, they show “the degree of integration and independence” that clauses have together (Goldman-Eisler 103). The key difference between silences and pauses is that silence is required for pauses, but pauses are not necessary for silence— silence can stand alone.
To further this discussion I am looking back to our studies on archives, in which the key concept from Rodney Carter’s “Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence” was silence and its implications. One of the components of the article that stuck with me was how attempting to cover up or “fill” in a silence while something seems noble by archivists could actually hamper the silenced even more because it rewrites the record and the marginalized may not want to be included (Carter 226). I think a central concept that Carter puts out that is central to this course is for groups of people to represent themselves on their own terms. Looking back at the memoirs we read from Cockeyed to Persepolis every author denoted some form of staying true to themselves be it with their physical disabilities to their ideologies.
In this way, pauses from feedback become relevant to this discussion because the implication of getting a statement “I pause here” is a nudge to stay true to yourself and check up to make sure you are on track. During the Archives Project, there was intensive amounts of feedback and collaboration involved coincidentally working with “silences” that at times made it hard for our group to figure out what we presenting, however by pausing and reflecting back at what we had done we were able to put a project together and make it work.
To extend pauses outside of class, I look to Emma Gonzalez’s speech at March for Our Lives in Washington, DC last month. I think her speech was a secondary reason I am even writing about pauses. Her speech was approximately six minutes twenty seconds long in reference to the length of time it took for the Parkland, Florida shooter to attack her high school Marjory Stoneman Douglas, but most of her speech was actually silence until she resumed and concluded (Lopez). There is power in pause and just like the feedback or just like archival “silences” it makes you reflect- especially with an urge to fill in the gaps of speech.
On a last and final note, I would like to thank Laurie and all of the ASTU class for a great year and for giving me pause to reflect on all the things we have done. Until next time!
Works Cited
Carter, Rodney G. S. “Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence.” Archivaria.61 (2006): 215. Web.
Goldman-Eisler, Frieda. “Pauses, Clauses, Sentences.” Language and Speech 15.2 (1972): 103-13. ComDisDome. Web.
Lopez, German. “Watch: Emma Gonzalez’s incredible moment of silence at March for Our Lives.” Vox. March 25, 2018. Web. <https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/24/17159916/march-for-our-lives-emma-gonzalez-silence>.