Abstract

Against attempts to vacate silence of the possibility of expression, and empty the expression of its own silence, this article proposes as a task for our contemporary world that we should be silence-trackers. This task is not easy, since the decisive silence cannot be heard, but it is treasured within the words and works as their last and most inspired truth. To that end, it is taken as a guide the famous Letter of Lord Chandos (Hofmannsthal), who claims his silence-in-transit (exceeded by a new experience of the overwhelming richness of reality), as well as Blanchot’s reflections on the relationship between silence and inspiration. In the second part, the article “tracks”, as “exemplary” examples, the silences of A. López (Dream of Light) and the one involved in the secret of “Rosebud” (Citizen Kane, Welles).Keywords: silence, inspiration, expression, Chandos, Hofmannsthal, Blanchot.