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Youth and Conflict in Israel-Palestine
Storytelling, Contested Space and the Politics of Memory
Youth and Conflict in Israel-Palestine
Storytelling, Contested Space and the Politics of Memory
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Description
How are forbidden histories told and transmitted among young people in Israel/Palestine? What can their stories teach us about their everyday experiences of segregation and political violence?
This book investigates how young people use storytelling to navigate borders, memory, and unseen spaces, and to confront questions of belonging and those they see as the 'other'. The study is unique in its inclusion of children from a broad spectrum of communities, including Palestinian refugee camps and right-wing Israeli settlement homes. The book shows that boundary spaces are fertile ground for the transmission of forbidden stories and memories.
Young people are at the centre of the research and Victoria Biggs argues that storytelling reveals much more about their experiences and perceptions than either quantitative data or qualitative interviews. Through analysis of the language, metaphor, violence, and endings employed in the stories, storytelling is shown to be a political act that plays a vital role in shaping conflict-affected young people's concepts of community, exclusion, and belonging.
Table of Contents
Once Upon an Intifada
At the Edge of Known Stories
Field Sites and Fault Lines
Story against Narrative
Young People as Storytellers
Language and the Hidden Landscape
Fairy Tale as an Idiom of Terror
A Lexicon of Symbols
Mother Tongues and Other Tongues
Violence in the Narration of Self and Other
Face to Face: the Fundamental Violence of Storytelling
Storytelling as Self-Expression and Suppression
Purity in Narrative? Storytelling as Transgression
“What Do They Tell About Us?”
Forbidden Histories in Contested Spaces
Narrative Drifts into Forbidden Terrain
Topographies of Forbidden History in Israel/Palestine
“Until the Seventh Wave”: The Liquid Borders of Memory
Happily Ever After? Telling Endings
Unfinished Houses
The Sense of an Ending: Making Meaning through Narrative Structure
“To Make the Dream Come True”: Ending Political Violence
Ending the Research: Central Themes and Patterns Bibliography
Index
Product details
| Published | Dec 10 2020 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 208 |
| ISBN | 9781838604912 |
| Imprint | I.B. Tauris |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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[I]n addition to the book's empirical contributions, it makes methodological and theoretical contributions by adding to the corpus of knowledge on storytelling, narration, and contested histories ... Further, Biggs raises ethical questions regarding carrying out research in overstudied areas and explains how she adjusted her own approach to better listen to and empower the youth with whom she worked; thus, this book is of relevance to students of fieldwork methods more broadly, not only to those working in Israel/Palestine.
Journal of Palestine Studies
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Victoria Biggs writes a compelling book that brings young people's stories into the foreground, troubling familiar narratives with a dynamic, rich and highly readable account of lives lived amidst violence, oppression and long-standing conflict. She argues that 'telling a story is an act of trust' and 'listening is an expression of responsibility'. I would urge all interested in the politics and narratives of Israel-Palestine to read this book and take that responsibility.
James Thompson, Professor of Applied Theatre, University of Manchester, UK
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This book focuses on young people as storytellers in the violent and politicized Israeli-Palestinian context and gives us new insights into the worries, dreams and reasoning of Palestinian and Israeli youth. By giving voice to children and youth in Palestinian cities and refugee camps, in Israeli settlements as well as in bilingual educational settings, the author manage to transmit the complexities of identity formation, place-making, political stances and processes of othering.
Nina Gren, Assistant Professor, Lund University, Sweden
ONLINE RESOURCES
Bloomsbury Collections
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