Silences That Kill? Hate, Fear, and Their Silences

Abstract

This paper focuses on providing answers to three basic research questions on the basis of political discourse in Croatia (which produces fear through the use of explicit and implicit speech of exclusion and often also hate speech) and research into marginalized groups’ personal narratives of fear and anxiety. First, how is hate narratively shaped in public discourse and personal narratives? Second, how does the language of hate affect those who are designated as objects of hate? Third, can and to what degree do the subjects of anxiety/fear (i.e. the explicit object of hate) narrate their experience and emotional response to hate? The author is interested in the places in which hate (which is itself marked by silence) generates fear and silence, the places in which hate erodes the subjects’ need for intersubjectivity and leads to a deep sense of isolation and being silent, and which also sometimes leads to articulated resistance.