THE SECRETS OF SILENCE (original) (raw)

Family Stories Untold. Doing Family through Practices of Silence

Ethnologia Europaea, 2016

Family history can be seen to be comprised of both told and untold stories and sentiments related to them, all of which affect family members. Drawing on interviews conducted with immigrants from the former Soviet Union living in Finland and their family members living in the country of origin (in Russian Karelia and Estonia), this article1 explores the silenced aspects of family storytelling and analyses how the absence of narration can serve as a protector and maintainer of family as a set of relationships, or an enabler of “normal” family life. The focus of the article is on family past, and the continuum from tellable to silenced experiences will be analysed. However, the methodological side of studying unsaid or unsayable things is also touched upon.

Introduction: Silence, Secrets, and Revelations

Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society, 2019

F ew things inspire the anthropologist’s imagination and analytical speculation as much as silences and secrets encountered in fieldwork. They compel one to ponder whether something interesting might lie beneath what appears to be covered by silence or secrets, and if so, through what means that something might be uncovered. Relatedly, few things launch the anthropologist into more profound methodological, ethical, and political deliberations than the silences one does unveil and the secrets one is made privy to in the field, many of these converging in the question of how secrets and silence should be treated in one’s writing. This special issue delves into the interconnections between these two: silences and secrets in fieldwork encounters, and the silences that are produced through the knowledge we gain within them. The articles examine how secrets and silences are embedded in social structures: how they include and exclude people and map the operations of power, and how they are reproduced, transformed, and broken in the narratives people tell about themselves.

Five Kinds of Silence by Shelagh Stephenson: Debates About Abuse and Neglect as Learned Behaviors

2019

Literature is a mirror which is held up to nature and human life. In other words, literary works which take their subjects openly from human life have majorly influenced the improvement of society, shaping civilizations, and changing political frameworks and revealed injustice and forms of violence. That’s why, we have chosen a work of literature, a play, to deal with child abuse and neglect that may be caused by physical, emotional, or sexual harm, and can happen anywhere regardless of culture, ethnicity, or income group. Five Kinds of Silence by Shelagh Stephenson (2004) shows to the audience through three women who are obliged to continue their lives in fear of their husband or father that legal system cannot appreciate the wrath the women feel as a result of years of persistent abuse. The play also shows that even the murder of the abuser is not the end of the psychological torture that the abuse causes. The play is the criticism of the view that the end of the physical abuse is...

Silence: Hiding a Father's Abuse

… Children's Literature/Littérature canadienne pour la …, 1999

Autopsie d'une collection policière jeunesse: Frissons / Monique Noël-Gaudreault [37-44] (Abstract)

The Experience of Being a Hidden Child Survivor of the Holocaust

2009

Child survivors of the Holocaust have only recently been recognized as a distinguishable group of individuals who survived the war with a different experience to the older survivors. This thesis focuses on a specific group of child survivors, those who survived by going into hiding. In hiding, some remained “visible” by hiding within convents, orphanages or with Christian families. Others were physically hidden and had to disappear from sight. Most children often combined these two experiences in their hiding. The intent of this study was to explore the experience of these hidden children using Giorgi’s empirical phenomenological methodology and to gain a richer understanding of the nature of this experience. Phenomenological analyses of the recorded and transcribed interviews of 11 child survivors were conducted and organized into meaning units which subsequently yielded situated structures from which the general structures evolved. These analyses revealed that the defining moment ...

Child Story

Women’s Side of War, 2008

This story reflects author’s personal experience as a child navigating survival during the Bosnian war, 1992-1996. Introduction from the Editor: Dear women, This letter, my favourite form of communication, is addressed to each one of you separately and, particularly; to every one of you who wrote or spoke whilst others recorded. Also, it is to those who will read this. Just as I saw those of you in my mind whose stories are here as I read about you, at the same time, I saw all of you who will read this in the future. The women’s word has often been used and frequently misused, dis- torted, and (mis)interpreted. On the one hand, women were the real victims of a specific war strategy, and on the other hand, this victimisation was used as a "case": a weapon of war propaganda, turning women into victims twice over. Those who listened attentively to what the women had to say and those who faithfully wrote down and promoted their words were, however, few and far between. It seemed important to me to obtain these records: collect them in one place, and thus, endow them with new force. I would not have ven- tured into this, had I not already seen that women wanted to hear these words; that they mattered to them, and that this hunger to know and exchange wartime experiences never ends. I see this book as an incentive to continue joining your personal experiences (in the ways you find best). Thereby also continuing to add to a women’s history which is still in signifi- cant contrast to the other: an undoubtedly men’s-only history, dry and mer- cilessly impersonal, not allowing any individual voice to break through and attain its legitimate place. After all these years, perhaps we should take stock of all that we had to go through. We should take stock of the enormous effort we have invest- ed. Our effort will allow us to realise how strong we have been and will make it possible to recognize our true strength by reminding us of all of the tragedies and the trials and tribulations that we have surpassed. That is the purpose of this book: to see how important female friendships were to us, how much we helped - or should have helped – each other; to enable us to rely on our own forces as responsible citizens; to refuse to be cast forever in the role of victims; to refuse to be allotted only an insignificant role whenev- er decisions are made. And still, we are confronted with our own tremendous expectations when it comes to the implementation of decisions which are not our own and are even dangerous for us. We must re-examine the traditions we have passed on and maintained, and we must see whether those are our A Letter (In Lieu of an Introduction) 9 real values. Women, beyond our natural strife, we must establish new values for cooperation and peace that will signify - above all - life without fear. I have attended numerous women’s meetings and have seen how important it is for women to talk about what happened to them in the wars and, at the same time, to hear what happened to others. Surrounded by women ready to listen attentively, they found the courage to speak about things that they had kept silent about before. Because there had been nobody willing to hear their stories, or because it was too painful for them, or because they feared the consequences of speaking, they had remained silent. But each story was another story’s beginning. I learned what should not be read anywhere, what did not fit into the "official version." Knowledge was weighed, questions and examinations were re-opened, opinions changed... The responsibility of others was established, one’s own civil responsibility rooted. Support was created. I am confident that in this book you will find some answers and per- haps learn something new as well. Even more importantly, I hope that you will find and feel compassion for the OTHER WOMAN - perhaps by simply recognising your own experience in that Other Woman’s experience. Experience is always unique and therefore incomparable. Every record in this anthology is personal, and a collection of such personal experiences acquires the strength of the universal. Our power can be great if we join together our modest strengths. Through a united effort, we can make visible this invisible women’s side of war. No effort is worthless if our strong voice against the war can be made to prevail and prevent future wars. Yours truly, Lina *** This book, an anthology of women’s records about the wars waged on the soil of the former Yugoslavia in 1991-1999, is the product of a year- long exploration in cooperation with many women’s organizations, human rights organizations, organizations which deal with the past and reconcilia- tion, and the individual women who bravely voiced their experiences, record- ed their experiences and/or endorsed these experiences. We made our selec- tions from the sources within our reach. The available sources are listed in the Bibliography. We hope that this book will not remain the only one of its kind and that it will encourage further research and more books. With the exception of some inevitable abridgements marked (...), we have reproduced all of the texts faithfully. Share your thoughts. Please send us your feedback. linavuskovic@gmail.com Translated by Mirka Janković

Narrating the Silence of Trauma

Conception by racist pack rape kept secret for more than 30 years; rape as war crime kept secret for more than 50 years; a doctor sexual ly abusing a five year old; child abuse within a family. Silence is a ubiquitous by-p roduct of traumatic crime. And when the subjects of such crime finally decide to s peak, the interview process itself can be a traumatising experience. And then, the han dling of information by the journalist, particularly in long form narrative, is integral to that experience. Contextualising these narratives within the genre o f literary journalism, this paper is an exploration of professional practice when dealin g with traumatic memory in subjects. The paper will draw on interviews which f orm part of a manuscript of creative non-fiction entitled Speaking Secrets . This paper argues for a greater discussion within t he academy of empathy as a tool of journalism, rather than a notion regarded by most a s anathema to the industry. It argues that empathy must and...

The world is a place of silence: The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín.

Dandelion Journal, 2017

Colm Tóibín's The Testament of Mary addresses the problematic nature of women's representation and definition in patriarchal literary canon through the manifold ways silence can be converted into a vehicle for testimony. Set 20 years after Jesus's death, Tóibín's novella retells the events during Jesus's life through the eyes of Mary, His mother. From her sceptical perspective, a new conception of the foundations of Christianity comes to light. This article analyses the stages of silence Mary goes through, starting by the imposed silence she endures for being a woman and thus not being allowed to speak. Secondly, it studies how some forms of silences can be intervened and transformed in order to deal with trauma. The Testament of Mary is a highly relevant text for the early 21 st century, in the way it gives voice to the voiceless and in its unusual treatment of trauma in memoir narratives. This article analyses silence as a space for opportunity to reply back to the canon, and celebrates the world as a place of silence. ___________________________________________________________________________https://dandelionjournal.org/article/id/365/