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Korean edition of an Irish study of silence by DCU Professor published
Korean edition of an Irish study of silence by DCU Professor published

Korean edition of an Irish study of silence by DCU Professor published

A Korean edition of an Irish study of silence, by Dublin City University Emeritus Professor Colum Kenny, has just been published.

Prof. Kenny has greeted this unusual development as “a sign of universal common interests at a time of growing international divisions.”

The Korean edition of The Power of Silence: Silent Communication in Daily Life is from the Geulnurim Publishing Company in Seoul.

First published in London, by Karnac Books in 2011, Kenny’s work explores the significance of silence in the arts, business, personal relations, therapy, faith, politics and other areas of daily life.

It includes reference to the work of So Chong-ju, perhaps the most important Korean poet of the twentieth-century.

Colum Kenny is a former chair of the Masters in Journalism programme at Dublin City University, where he was a member of faculty in the School of Communications for more than three decades.

He is the author of a dozen books on culture, history and society.

The Power of Silence has been well received.

Gillian Wearing, artist, and winner of the Turner Prize for Sixty-Minute Silence, said of The Power of Silence: “A brilliant and inspiring book that clearly illustrates how silence has shaped history and culture as much as the spoken word has.”

Other praise includes, “Kenny’s book will be invaluable for anyone who wants to explore the richness and complexity of silence in a wide range of social domains and activities…. silence emerges as a multifaceted resource with which we create meaning and a powerful metaphor through which we can gain understanding of the surrounding world.” —Prof. Adam Jaworski, Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University.

“Kenny moves the reader to fully appreciate the beauty in silences of peaceful interconnection, those that make music ebb and flow, and the therapeutic silences of self-knowledge. He shows the multi-faceted nature of silence and the profound importance of context in understanding its meaning.” —

Dr Heidi M. Levitt, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts. “Engaging, thought-provoking and full of fascinating detail, this is a must-read for anyone intrigued by the place of silence in today's increasingly noisy world. Kenny's crisp writing skillfully illuminates the many faces of silence.” —

Dr Jolyon Mitchell, Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues, University of Edinburgh. “An impressively wide-ranging and informative survey of the joys and dangers of silence as cultural concept and practice. Kenny draws the reader into this fascinating topic with the breadth of his scholarship and even-handedness of his judgments.” —Prof. Stuart Sim, Author of Manifesto for Silence: Confronting the Politics and Culture of Noise.