The Silent Witness Project as Rhetorical Hybrid: Toward
a Theory of Collective Mourning
Article in American Behavioral Scientist · April 2021
Summary
This essay has posited a theory of collective mourning using Silent Witness as a case study. Collective mourning combines the act of memorializing with calls to action, and this essay suggests it is neither an exclusively visual nor textual effort. Exhibits of collective
mourning, with their interplay of visual and textual elements, can be considered as a rhetorical hybrid which enables mourning that is also a call for societal change.
As causes are championed, understanding how collective mourning operates in society gives critics and activists better insight into levers of social change. In addition, this analysis shows how projects of collective mourning provide marginalized groups, such as women who are victims of domestic violence, an alternative means to shed light on issues important to them.