Discuss the importance of speech, silence, or absence in a text on the course syllabus.

In a number of works we have studied this term, characters are silent, silenced, or struggling to find a voice in which they can express themselves. Sometimes the speech must happen through a mediator, non-standard language, or artistic expression; sometimes the characters are absent altogether and thus cannot tell their stories. Discuss the importance of speech, silence, or absence in a text on the course syllabus.