Contributions to Southern Appalachian St The Silent Appalachian: Wordless Mountaineers in Fiction, Film and Television, Book 42, (Paperback)

Appalachian literature is filled with silent or non-discursive characters. The reasons for their wordlessness vary. Some are mute or pretend to be, some choose not to speak or are silenced by grief, trauma or fear. Others mutter monosyllables, stutter, grunt and point, speak in tongues or idiosyncratic language. They capture the reader's attention by what they don't say.