Writing against loss

Kurdish women, subaltern authorship, and the politics of voice in contemporary Turkey

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2253045
AutoresMarlene Schäfers (0000-0001-8992-7926, Department of Conflict and Development Studies Ghent University Universiteitstraat 8 9000 Gent Belgium, autor correspondente)
Ano2017
Volume23
Fascículo3
Páginas543-561
Data de publicação2017-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1359-0987 • E-ISSN: 1467-9655
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9655.12648
OpenAlexW2737472068
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas29

This article focuses on the appeal that writing and authorship hold for Kurdish women singers in contemporary Turkey. It argues that authorship has come to the fore as an object of aspiration at a moment when a history of political silencing intersects with a more recent commodification of Kurdish culture. In this context, authorship constitutes an avenue for Kurdish women to insert themselves into struggles for political rights, discourses of history writing, and an emerging cultural market. Yet, as the analysis shows, becoming an author centrally relies on gaining access to means that allow materially inscribing voices and making them durable. Authorship therefore needs to be recognized as a fragile achievement, especially for subaltern authors, whose position is marked by restricted access to inscriptive means. Tracing Kurdish women's attempts at making their voices, quite literally, matter, the article contributes to our understanding of the politics of voice in the contemporary world

Aesthetics · Art · Commodification · Context (archaeology · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Subaltern · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Turkey's Politics and Society