Peter Turchi: Blanks (Silences) (January 2003)

A map, Peter Turchi notes, is as much made out of what it leaves out as what it selectively includes; in this lecture, Turchi posits the map as a metaphor for a poem, story, or novel, and considers the role of blanks and silences in all three forms. Drawing on Moby Dick, Anne Carson’s translations of Sappho and Kate Chopin’s “The Storm,” among other examples, Turchi asks us to consider how the blanks and silences in our writing can create “imaginal adventures” for the reader.