Endurance

Speaking Kurdish in a Warped World

Series: 

Author:
Alex Pillen
In Endurance, Alex Pillen portrays a sense of being unique within Kurdish cultural spheres. How to feel unique despite devastating violence, cultural oppression and assimilation is a question faced by many communities globally. Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) is a focal point for such uniqueness.
When a culture is under siege and many have lost a former way of life it may not be clear how a society looks itself in the mirror, finds its reflection. Alex Pillen’s portrayal of Speaking Kurdish in a Warped World locates such lines of reflection within everyday language. The fear of a random geopolitical pair of dice is global, a fear to be honed when reading this account of uniqueness in the face of totalising loss.
Copyright Year:
2024
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-70967-6
Publication:
16 Sep 2024
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-70951-5
Publication:
12 Sep 2024
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Alex Pillen, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at University College London. She explores language in war-torn societies from a cultural perspective and is the author of A Space That Will Never Be Filled (2017).
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
List of Transcripts
Note on the Kurdish Alphabet (Kurmanji)

1 Waking Up—Alone
 1 Introduction
 2 Speaking Kurdish
 3 A Living Dictionary
 4 Approach
 5 Chapter Outline

2 Reality’s Linguistic Shape—Evidential Texture
 1 Introduction
 2 The Face of Cruelty
 3 Evidential Finesse
 4 A Mood Too
 5 The Confirmation of Reality

3 Precision and Autonymy—Direct Quotation
 1 Introduction
 2 Quotation
 3 Rhythmic Flow
 4 Subtle Patterns
 5 Autonymy
 6 On Exactitude

4 Like I Say—Often
 1 Introduction
 2 Words That Only Go Half-Way
 3 Like I Say
 4 Solidity
 5 Lived Uniqueness

5 A Space Of One’s Own In Language—The Reflexive Pronoun
 1 Introduction
 2 What Belongs to Oneself
 3 A Sense of Self, Respect and the Divine
 4 A Space of One’s Own

6 A Pronoun’s Shadow—Being Genuine Without Name
 1 Introduction
 2 Segmentary Resonance
 3 Xwe’s Shadow
 4 The Ban on X and W

7 Acoustic Ambiguity—The Intonation Of Painful Injustice
 1 Introduction
 2 Mournful Tones
 3 An Invitation to Listen
 4 Tonal Intertextuality
 5 Coda

8 The Endurance Of Second-Hand Reality—Conclusion
 1 Introduction
 2 Enduring Keynotes
 3 Second-Hand
 4 Singularity

Bibliography
Index
Kurdish intellectuals and activists interested in Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji), scholars and students within the fields of Kurdish Studies and Anthropology, or people interested in war, trauma, and cultural survival.
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