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Bearing Witness to Trauma: Music and Resistance
Abstract
How does one bear witness to violence and injustice? Further, how does one represent trauma? The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip and the immense loss of human life, as well as the almost total destruction of all infrastructure has left many with an inability to describe and speak to the atrocities that they are witnessing. The specter of death that continuously haunts Palestinians since October 7th has simultaneously resulted in the constant recording of the human cost of the attacks and a need, albeit challenging, to represent to the world the manifestation of trauma. This second layer–representation– is the focus of this paper. This paper seeks to explore how artists in songs like "Rajin," "Ya Tal3een," and "Palestine will never die" have used music as a medium to both bear witness to and represent the traumas of the Palestinians. By utilizing both the visual and the audio, these artists engage multiple sensory faculties in order to produce in the listener/viewer a multilayered empathetic response and therefore share the responsibility of witnessing. In that way, they not only record the trauma but are able to construct a narrative that represents the trauma to the audience and creates a space of recognition. In doing so, these artists utilize their music to record the moment, represent trauma, and in that way resist the attempts to obscure the suffering of the Palestinians.
Discipline
Media Arts
Geographic Area
Palestine
Sub Area
None