Who is speaking? co-option, authority, and envisioning the nation: women and narratives of sexual violence in conflict
This article presents an investigation of the forces of authority and co-option surrounding the documentation of violence and specifically sexual violence against women in conflict, and examines the representation of survivors in media and academic sources. The first section focusses on the use of o...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Edinburgh Library
2015-04-01
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| Series: | The South Asianist |
| Online Access: | http://www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk/article/view/1173 |
| _version_ | 1818357815060725760 |
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| author | Alice Fitzsimons-Quail |
| author_facet | Alice Fitzsimons-Quail |
| author_sort | Alice Fitzsimons-Quail |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article presents an investigation of the forces of authority and co-option surrounding the documentation of violence and specifically sexual violence against women in conflict, and examines the representation of survivors in media and academic sources. The first section focusses on the use of oral testimony in the conflicts in East Pakistan/Bangladesh in 1971 and the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and how survivors' narratives are interpreted and communicated. It then goes on to examine the representation of violence against women in the Bangladesh conflict in a variety of South Asian newspaper sources in the years immediately following 1971. This is then further explored in the final section where these media discourses display the co-opting of women's experiences into discourses of nation-building and state legitimacy in Bangladesh. The article concludes that the sources examined reflect a tendency for narratives of sexual violence in conflict to be co-opted or otherwise 'used' for secondary political purposes by the media, the state and even academic researchers, such that the women survivors retain little authority over the communication of their 'history' and its utilisation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T20:19:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6ced213729f34996b49e109a2fad0af6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-487X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T20:19:06Z |
| publishDate | 2015-04-01 |
| publisher | University of Edinburgh Library |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The South Asianist |
| spelling | doaj.art-6ced213729f34996b49e109a2fad0af62022-12-21T23:32:44ZengUniversity of Edinburgh LibraryThe South Asianist2050-487X2015-04-01321173Who is speaking? co-option, authority, and envisioning the nation: women and narratives of sexual violence in conflictAlice Fitzsimons-Quail0University of EdinburghThis article presents an investigation of the forces of authority and co-option surrounding the documentation of violence and specifically sexual violence against women in conflict, and examines the representation of survivors in media and academic sources. The first section focusses on the use of oral testimony in the conflicts in East Pakistan/Bangladesh in 1971 and the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and how survivors' narratives are interpreted and communicated. It then goes on to examine the representation of violence against women in the Bangladesh conflict in a variety of South Asian newspaper sources in the years immediately following 1971. This is then further explored in the final section where these media discourses display the co-opting of women's experiences into discourses of nation-building and state legitimacy in Bangladesh. The article concludes that the sources examined reflect a tendency for narratives of sexual violence in conflict to be co-opted or otherwise 'used' for secondary political purposes by the media, the state and even academic researchers, such that the women survivors retain little authority over the communication of their 'history' and its utilisation.http://www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk/article/view/1173 |
| spellingShingle | Alice Fitzsimons-Quail Who is speaking? co-option, authority, and envisioning the nation: women and narratives of sexual violence in conflict The South Asianist |
| title | Who is speaking? co-option, authority, and envisioning the nation: women and narratives of sexual violence in conflict |
| title_full | Who is speaking? co-option, authority, and envisioning the nation: women and narratives of sexual violence in conflict |
| title_fullStr | Who is speaking? co-option, authority, and envisioning the nation: women and narratives of sexual violence in conflict |
| title_full_unstemmed | Who is speaking? co-option, authority, and envisioning the nation: women and narratives of sexual violence in conflict |
| title_short | Who is speaking? co-option, authority, and envisioning the nation: women and narratives of sexual violence in conflict |
| title_sort | who is speaking co option authority and envisioning the nation women and narratives of sexual violence in conflict |
| url | http://www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk/article/view/1173 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT alicefitzsimonsquail whoisspeakingcooptionauthorityandenvisioningthenationwomenandnarrativesofsexualviolenceinconflict |