AnthroPod explores the intersection of anthropology and poetry with guests Darcy Alexandra and Ather Zia. They discuss topics such as violence, trauma, and migration through ethnographic poetry, the value of audiovisual storytelling, stylistic choices in poetry, and the unique experiences of women in Kashmir through Dr. Zia's book Resisting Disappearances.
Ethnographic poetry can uncover the silences and complexities of violence and trauma.
Anthropology and poetry intersect through their shared aim of understanding human experiences and emotions.
Deep dives
Dr. Alexandra's Poetry: Uncovering Silences and Trauma
Dr. Darcy Alexandra chose to write poetry as a way to explore violence, trauma, and migration. Through poetry, she uncovered the silences that had accumulated in the aftermath of violence and trauma. Her poems spanned 25 years, reflecting on events from San Salvador in 1991 to Central Europe in 2015. One poem, memorial, memorializes the brutal killing she witnessed during her time as a human rights activist in El Salvador. Her poetry serves as a way to reflect on the complexities and resonances of violence and to offer alternative storytelling outside the asylum system.
Dr. Alexandra's Stylistic Choices: Expressing Complexities
Dr. Alexandra's poems incorporate a variety of stylistic choices. Her poem memorial stands out with its use of triptych structure, capturing the tension and complexities surrounding the violence she witnessed. The poem also plays with enjambment, using visual imagery to explore themes of violence and photography. In Ruta de la Malin scene, she incorporates Spanish language and uses exclamatory sentences to convey the sensorial aspects of food and the connections between places and movement. In more ordinary to forget or to remember, she utilizes couplets to create a sense of movement and incorporates pacing and timing to evoke different emotions in the reader.
Dr. Alexandra: Poetry as Anthropology
Dr. Alexandra sees poetry as anthropological due to its emphasis on observation, paying attention, and being fully engaged with human experiences. Just as anthropology aims to render cultures and people as texts for understanding, poetry allows for a deep exploration of the human world and the emotions beyond what is explicitly seen. Poetry enhances her academic writing and sharpens her skills as a reader and listener. On the other hand, she finds it more ambiguous to define what is anthropological about poetry, as there are diverse ways of being poetic. Nevertheless, she finds poetry to evoke emotions and laughter, a richness that can enhance ethnographic writing.
Dr. Atresia's Ethnographic Poetry on Kashmir
Dr. Atresia, a political anthropologist and poet, incorporates ethnographic poetry in her work on Kashmir. Her poetry emerges as a genuine expression of her multi-dimensional experiences in the field. The poems become a form of catharsis and intimately capture the affective aspect of the Kashmir conflict. Stylistically, she allows the poems to emerge organically, sometimes from the vantage point of the individuals she interviews. These ethnographic poems serve to illustrate the humanity, resistance, and micro-resistances amid a tragic political dispute. Dr. Atresia highlights the intersection between anthropology and poetry, as both aim to render human experiences and emotions while embracing different modes of expression.
Writing ethnographic poetry with Darcy Alexandra and Ather Zia. This is the second installment in the What Does Anthropology Sound Like series, in which we ask anthropologists to share their work and insights with us on the different forms their anthropological practice takes. In this episode, the theme is poetry.
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