Silence In Yann Martel's Beatrice And Virgil

The contemporary Canadian writer Yann Martel rises to fame after winning the Man Booker Prize in 2002.As his first novel published eight years after the prize,Beatrice and Virgil has received extensive attention from critics and therefore becomes one of Martel's most important masterpieces.The novel revolves around the experiences of writer Henry helping a mysterious taxidermist with his animal playscript writing.In the play,characters,including a monkey and a donkey,discuss atrocities,fears and representations of memory in the shadow of animal pogrom,while Henry and the taxidermist discuss the script in the novel.These multi-dimensional dialogues reflect the lasting negative impact of the Holocaust on human society and the difficulties of its representation in the post-Holocaust context.Closely relating to spoken dialogues,“silence” also performs as an essential expressive means in the novel.This thesis scrutinizes “silence” as a pervasive phenomenon in Beatrice and Virgil.With “silence” being an essential new perspective to examine dialogues and interpret characters,this thesis aims to delve into the different connotations of the silence of three dimensions presented in the novel,namely,the of the Holocaust victims,perpetrators and beholders.The analysis starts from the silence of animals,representing that of Holocaust victims on a metaphorical level.Animals are forced into muteness due to oppressive environment.They are deprived of voice and their silence pertains to and represents the power-relation;language inadequacy over the unspeakable also results in animals' inability to say.Extreme fear and pain transcend the limits of cognition and language,and can hardly be conveyed through words;meanwhile,victims may choose to stay silent in the face of traumatic experiences.Their speechlessness forms both intrinsic self-protection,expression and even resistance.The thesis then focuses on the silence of the taxidermist as a perpetrator.His gloomy image is inseparable from his historical accountability,thus his reticence is a requirement of self-concealment and repression;the dreary taxidermy shop mirrors the rejection and avoidance of the outside world,which lead to the taxidermist's inability to say,and functions as an externalization of his inner aloneness.It is additionally argued that in his writings used to express himself there exist intentional meaning gaps,which correspond to an inner paradox between display and concealment hidden in the taxidermist's speechlessness,and suggest his aim of pursuing the redemption without repentance.Finally,the silence of the writer Henry standing for Holocaust beholders is explored,attributing his falling quiet to ethical questioning and representational difficulties,that is,whether the part of history should be spoken of at all,and how it can be illustrated.This paper holds that,to a certain extent,silence in the novel contributes to thematic construction as Martel's answer to the representational dilemma in Holocaust literature,arguing that as an artistic technique,silence is an embodiment of Martel's attempt to convey psychological and emotional truths through fiction and to break the long-existing silence of non-realistic Holocaust literature,and helps to find his voice as a Holocaust writer.The thesis sorts silence of various characters presented in the novel threefold,including imposed muteness,inability to say,and intentional reticence,and emphasizes the significance of connotative silence as a means of voicing in the Holocaust narrative of Yann Martel.