The representation of silence through literary works is a major concern among writers. Indeed, the language has few elements to manifest silence. In Les Ravagés and Jours de silence by Henri Michaux an aesthetic of silence dominates. Silence is aroused by the muteness of the insane in Les Ravagés. Painting and drawing practiced, in order to break this psychological inability to speak, give unsatisfactory results. The images obtained represent either desolate landscapes that evoke calm and silence (seascapes), or shapeless images (of men and animals) that are difficult to decipher. Painting and drawing deliver part of the mystery contained in the silence of the insane through images that are not explicit. Michaux expresses silence in poems through aposiopesis, ellipsis and a lexical field of silence and calm. It also creates a kind of punctuation inspired by the three dotted ellipsis that occupies an entire line or several in the text, in order to replace elements passed over in silence such as shortened enumerations, pauses in the narration, non -said and the unspeakable emanating from the mystery of life, where the word cannot make the content accessible.
Keywords : Silence, expression, speech, unspeakable, mystery.
