TY - JOUR
T1 - The burden of being exemplary
T2 - National sentiments, awkward witnessing, and womanhood in occupied Palestine
AU - Segal, Lotte Buch
PY - 2015/5/18
Y1 - 2015/5/18
N2 - This paper offers an analysis of how Palestinian wives of detainees are made into examples, both by themselves and by the people they are intimate with, whilst considering also the context of these women's awkward place in Palestinian narratives of national becoming. The main objective is to examine the burden of being an example, and what that implies for those who aspire to or are subtly coerced into inhabiting the position of an 'exemplary' woman in Palestine. Particular modalities of being an example are expected from Palestinian wives of detainees in order to sustain a shared version of the ordinary under military occupation. Not surprisingly, the emotional labour it takes to appear exemplary is necessarily eliminated from public as well as intimate registers of speech in order to keep up the collective aspiration to maintain a so-called 'ordinary life' during ongoing conflict.
AB - This paper offers an analysis of how Palestinian wives of detainees are made into examples, both by themselves and by the people they are intimate with, whilst considering also the context of these women's awkward place in Palestinian narratives of national becoming. The main objective is to examine the burden of being an example, and what that implies for those who aspire to or are subtly coerced into inhabiting the position of an 'exemplary' woman in Palestine. Particular modalities of being an example are expected from Palestinian wives of detainees in order to sustain a shared version of the ordinary under military occupation. Not surprisingly, the emotional labour it takes to appear exemplary is necessarily eliminated from public as well as intimate registers of speech in order to keep up the collective aspiration to maintain a so-called 'ordinary life' during ongoing conflict.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84929313370&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1467-9655.12164
DO - 10.1111/1467-9655.12164
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84929313370
VL - 21
SP - 30
EP - 46
JO - Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
JF - Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
SN - 1359-0987
IS - S1
ER -