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Voices That Matter: Kurdish Women at the Limits of Representation in Contemporary Turkey

Online ISBN:
9780226823034
Print ISBN:
9780226819808
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
Book

Voices That Matter: Kurdish Women at the Limits of Representation in Contemporary Turkey

Marlene Schäfers
Marlene Schäfers
Utrecht University
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Published online:
18 May 2023
Published in print:
23 December 2022
Online ISBN:
9780226823034
Print ISBN:
9780226819808
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press

Abstract

“Raise your voice!” and “Speak up!” are familiar refrains that assume, all too easily, that gaining voice will lead to empowerment, healing, and inclusion for marginalized subjects. This book reveals where such assumptions fall short, demonstrating that “raising one’s voice” is no straightforward path to emancipation but fraught with anxieties, dilemmas, and contradictions. In its attention to the voice as form, Voices that Matter examines not only what voices say, but also how they do so in Kurdish contexts where oral genres have a long, rich legacy. By focusing on the social labor that voices carry out as they sound, speak, and resonate, the book shows that where new vocal practices arise, they produce new selves and practices of social relations. In Turkey, recent decades have seen Kurdish voices gain increasing moral and political value as metaphors of representation and resistance. Women’s voices, in particular, are understood as potent means to withstand patriarchal restrictions and political oppression. By ethnographically tracing the transformations in how Kurdish women relate to and employ their voices as a result of these shifts, the book illustrates how contemporary politics foster not only new hopes and desires but also create novel vulnerabilities as they valorize, elicit, and discipline voice in the name of empowerment and liberation.

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