Pain, potentiality and worldmaking in the aftermath of war
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE Pain falls upon us, threatening to rob us of our language. It is destructive, leaving traceable scars on our bodies and minds; it confronts us with the…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE Pain falls upon us, threatening to rob us of our language. It is destructive, leaving traceable scars on our bodies and minds; it confronts us with the…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE Patiently Edona explained to me, “Evil eye gets unleashed when someone thinks ‘Oh this is good, this is nice.’ It will also happen when someone thinks that…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE Emotion and talk about emotion are “simultaneously embodied and discursive ways of commenting on the possibilities, limitations, frustrations, and outcomes which an individual faces …
The politics of nerves “All of us are nervoz since the war.” “How can we not feel nervoz after what we went through?” Women who had survived the…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE The activity of list-making is an eclectic process that enables us to draw on varied, fragmentary sources, and simultaneously negotiate their meaning. It allows us to admire…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE my head is split there is a stone in my stomach I am worried my neck hurts my back hurts heat moves up in my body I…
Dr Ukshini, her back turned towards us in her white doctor’s coat, was busy preparing Turkish coffee over a small gas cooker. Laughing she remembered how American psychiatrists…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE It is March and the anniversaries of the massacres committed by Serbian forces in Krusha e Madhe and Pastasel are nearing. They are commemorated on the 26th…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE Humanitarian virtues Wars change life conditions. There are the sheer number of civilian deaths and the flow of forcibly displaced people. There is family disintegration, weakening o…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE Slap “Here you see the mourning family of two brothers who died…” Slap “This is a real mass grave…” Slap “In this mass grave you can see…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE It was usual to find portraits of ancestors hanging in the living rooms of each of the family compounds. Acting like a family tree, they represented people’s…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE I I am looking through a series of matt photos that are organised in an album. They have each been carefully placed behind individual plastic sheets that…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE After a long day of pickling peppers and cooking ajwar in the yard, Arieta[1] joined me on the shilte, a foam mat spread out on the veranda.…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE Apart from the wind the only sound that can be heard is the grinding of metal shovels breaking the rocky earth. About 30 men are digging graves…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE Serbian armed forces systematically attacked villages in the municipality of Rahovec, expulsing civilians, shelling and destroying homes and properties, and killing livestock. Carryi…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE In one of our many conversations about the Kosovo War, the late village representative, Kadri Dellova, told me: “The massacre of Krusha e Madhe is still fresh…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE “Come in!” we hear in response to our gentle knock on the door. We enter Dr. Cena’s modestly furnished office in the heart of the community health…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE Anduena[1] looks affectionately at her son sitting snugly in her lap, and says, “For him the war is like a fairy tale. He often asks, ‘Mother, tell…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE She is ready. Upright, she stands in front of her modest house. Golden Bag is emblazoned across the small black sports bag she carries in her hand.…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE Headache Worries Sadness Blood pressure Nervousness Pain Sleeping problems Stress Back pain Impaired eyesight Heart problems Stomach pain Paralysis Neck pain Breathing problems Chest…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE Women who lost their husbands during the Kosovo War were perceived to be hovering in a liminal space. They could neither be treated as married women nor…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE “Women who come from rural areas don’t know how to explain their health problems to psychiatrists like me. When I tell them that their problems have a…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE “When I think about the war, I imagine that it isn’t real,” Valbona tells me during one of my frequent visits to her family home. “It seems…
AUTO-PAGE-TITLE “I get nervoz a lot.” Shkurta tells me, looking out the window onto the snowy farmyard. I had meant to start small talk by asking her how…