Au-delà des mots. Politique du silence et langage de la dissidence chez les Taisans anabaptistes du XVIe siècle

In 16th-century Germany, the so-called Anabaptist ‘Schweiger’ (literally ‘the Silent Ones’) chose to observe silence towards society, refusing to communicate with people outside their religious community and declining to greet them on the street. Catholic (Florimond de Raemond), Protestant (Martin B...

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Main Author: Marion Deschamp
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institut du Monde Anglophone 2017-07-01
Series:Etudes Epistémè
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/episteme/1550
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author Marion Deschamp
author_facet Marion Deschamp
author_sort Marion Deschamp
collection DOAJ
description In 16th-century Germany, the so-called Anabaptist ‘Schweiger’ (literally ‘the Silent Ones’) chose to observe silence towards society, refusing to communicate with people outside their religious community and declining to greet them on the street. Catholic (Florimond de Raemond), Protestant (Martin Bucer) and even non-conformist (Sebastian Franck, Caspar Schwenkfeld) authors denounced their muteness as antisocial and unchristian behaviour. But this politics of silence can also be understood as a non-verbal strategy of expressing dissent. For a lack of words, the voluntary relinquishment of language, helped to maintain the purity of this close-knit community of faith. It was also meant as a refusal of the linguistic practises which expressed relations of power, especially those employed to outlaw them as heretics. As I will show, the use of silence could simultaneously work as a sign of social distinction and as a mark of the invention of a new religious ethos.
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spelling doaj-art-b28cea08d2c9486a9f7696d4f0e371662025-08-20T03:07:23ZengInstitut du Monde AnglophoneEtudes Epistémè1634-04502017-07-013110.4000/episteme.1550Au-delà des mots. Politique du silence et langage de la dissidence chez les Taisans anabaptistes du XVIe siècleMarion DeschampIn 16th-century Germany, the so-called Anabaptist ‘Schweiger’ (literally ‘the Silent Ones’) chose to observe silence towards society, refusing to communicate with people outside their religious community and declining to greet them on the street. Catholic (Florimond de Raemond), Protestant (Martin Bucer) and even non-conformist (Sebastian Franck, Caspar Schwenkfeld) authors denounced their muteness as antisocial and unchristian behaviour. But this politics of silence can also be understood as a non-verbal strategy of expressing dissent. For a lack of words, the voluntary relinquishment of language, helped to maintain the purity of this close-knit community of faith. It was also meant as a refusal of the linguistic practises which expressed relations of power, especially those employed to outlaw them as heretics. As I will show, the use of silence could simultaneously work as a sign of social distinction and as a mark of the invention of a new religious ethos.https://journals.openedition.org/episteme/1550religious dissentanabaptismconfessional identitiespolitics of silencegreetingssocial conventions
spellingShingle Marion Deschamp
Au-delà des mots. Politique du silence et langage de la dissidence chez les Taisans anabaptistes du XVIe siècle
Etudes Epistémè
religious dissent
anabaptism
confessional identities
politics of silence
greetings
social conventions
title Au-delà des mots. Politique du silence et langage de la dissidence chez les Taisans anabaptistes du XVIe siècle
title_full Au-delà des mots. Politique du silence et langage de la dissidence chez les Taisans anabaptistes du XVIe siècle
title_fullStr Au-delà des mots. Politique du silence et langage de la dissidence chez les Taisans anabaptistes du XVIe siècle
title_full_unstemmed Au-delà des mots. Politique du silence et langage de la dissidence chez les Taisans anabaptistes du XVIe siècle
title_short Au-delà des mots. Politique du silence et langage de la dissidence chez les Taisans anabaptistes du XVIe siècle
title_sort au dela des mots politique du silence et langage de la dissidence chez les taisans anabaptistes du xvie siecle
topic religious dissent
anabaptism
confessional identities
politics of silence
greetings
social conventions
url https://journals.openedition.org/episteme/1550
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