What if we are possessed by a story we cannot tell? How can silence be both oppressive and powerful? Asha Abeyasekera (University of Colombo) reflects on her efforts to interpret the silences in a Sri Lankan woman’s story of her marriage, and shows how giving voice to others may give expression to a story that cannot be told otherwise.
... continue reading.Silence as Apolitical? Colonial Atrocities and Postcolonial Memory Work
Ana Dragojlovic (University of Melbourne) reflects on the firm wish of her Balinese interlocutors in the Netherlands to remain silent about colonial violence. Drawing on their responses to a Dutch exhibition that was framed within colonial discourse, she inquires into their wish for silence and argues for considering silences as affective, situated presences rather than the absence of speech.
... continue reading.Silence in the Post-Disaster Ethnographic Encounter
Annemarie Samuels (Leiden University) writes about the relation between narratives and silences in post-tsunami Aceh, Indonesia. Reflecting on the said and the unsaid in an encounter with one of her neighbors, she asks: How do silences shape narratives? How can anthropologists be sensitive to the limits of articulation?
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