Occupied by Memory: The Intifada Generation and the Palestinian State of Emergency

by John Collins

Overview

Occupied by Memory explores the memories of the first Palestinian intifada. Based on extensive interviews with members of the "intifada generation," those who were between 10 and 18 years old when the intifada began in 1987, the book provides a detailed look at the intifada memories of ordinary Palestinians.
These personal stories are presented as part of a complex and politically charged discursive field through which young Palestinians are invested with meaning by scholars, politicians, journalists, and other observers. What emerges from their memories is a sense of a generation caught between a past that is simultaneously traumatic, empowering, and exciting—and a future that is perpetually uncertain. In this sense, Collins argues that understanding the stories and the struggles of the intifada generation is a key to understanding the ongoing state of emergency for the Palestinian people. The book will be of interest not only to scholars of the Middle East but also to those interested in nationalism, discourse analysis, social movements, and oral history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814716373
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2004
Pages:	285
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

John Collins is Assistant Professor of Global Studies at St. Lawrence University. He is co-editor of Collateral Language: A User's Guide to America's New War.

Table of Contents

Note on Transliteration
Acknowledgments
Prologue: Approaching a Permanent State of Emergency
1 Production Notes
2 “Gaza Is Ruled by a Child”: The Intifada and the Rhetoric of Generation
3 Between Romance and Tragedy: A Balata Family Confronts the Present
4 The Secret Locations of Memory: Political Lessons at Home and in Prison
5 The Testing Grounds of Memory: Social Inversion at School and in the Streets
6 “In the Beginning . . . but Afterward . . .”: Moral Chronologies and Reassessments of the Intifada
7 Postscript: A Permanent State of Emergency (continued)
Appendix: The Intifada: A Brief Overview
Notes
Glossary of Arabic Terms
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"One of the best illustrations of contemporary scholars' fascination with the concept of memory as a concept closer to experience, a more human, subjective, and politically subversive notion than History."

-Critique of Anthropology,

"In this fascinating ethnographic account, John Collins shows how Palestinians remember, re-shape, and reinvent in their popular imagination the first Inti-fada, or uprising, of 1987-1993."

-Middle East Journal,

"Theoretically sharp and well written, Occupied by Memory propels the scholarship on Palestinians and perpetual states of violence in new and promising directions."

-Julie Peteet,author of Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement

"In Occupied by Memory, John Collins asks the 'intifada generation' to remember aloud the first intifada, what it might have meant, and what it has come to mean for them now. At once provocative and sensitive, John Collins's narrative probes deeply into the history of the last decade of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, human rights, and social justice."

-Barbara Harlow,author of After Lives: Legacies of Revolutionary Writing

"A powerfully honest work and a tremendous contribution to the literature on memory and violence in the Middle East. Superbly narrated, Occupied by Memory is compassionate but not sentimental, theoretically astute, and empathetically written."

-Ussama Makdisi,author of The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon

Editorial Reviews

"Theoretically sharp and well written, Occupied by Memory propels the scholarship on Palestinians and perpetual states of violence in new and promising directions."

Julie Peteet

"In this fascinating ethnographic account, John Collins shows how Palestinians remember, re-shape, and reinvent in their popular imagination the first Inti-fada, or uprising, of 1987-1993."

Middle East Journal

”One of the best illustrations of contemporary scholars’ fascination with the concept of memory as a concept closer to experience, a more human, subjective, and politically subversive notion than History.”

-Critique of Anthropology

”Theoretically sharp and well written, Occupied by Memory propels the scholarship on Palestinians and perpetual states of violence in new and promising directions.”

-Julie Peteet,author of Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement

From the Publisher

"In Occupied by Memory, John Collins asks the 'intifada generation' to remember aloud the first intifada, what it might have meant, and what it has come to mean for them now. At once provocative and sensitive, John Collins's narrative probes deeply into the history of the last decade of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, human rights, and social justice."

Barbara Harlow

"One of the best illustrations of contemporary scholars’ fascination with the concept of memory as a concept closer to experience, a more human, subjective, and politically subversive notion than History."

Critique of Anthropology

"A powerfully honest work and a tremendous contribution to the literature on memory and violence in the Middle East. Superbly narrated, Occupied by Memory is compassionate but not sentimental, theoretically astute, and empathetically written."

Ussama Makdisi