Spirit and the letter : trauma, warblogs and the public sphere

Awerbuck, Diane

Spirit and the letter : trauma, warblogs and the public sphere

Doctoral Thesis

2008

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of English Language and Literature

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

This research investigates the personal and political emancipatory potential of digital media, specifically the weblog, and asks the following question: How does individual trauma translate into public space? The research focus is the self-selected, unpaid and civilian bloggers forming the core of the Lebanese blogosphere during the 33-Day War between Israel and Lebanon in July and August 2006. Through the progression of their on-line narratives, I examine how traumatic events can be transformed into a narrative act. Blogging is a particularly apt medium for closing the ‘historical gap’ between an event and its reporting, and can facilitate the reflection and recovery necessary for cohesive individual and social identity after trauma. I conclude that this transformation, from traumatic memory to narrative memory, has social implications in any context in which the democratisation of voice is important. The blogosphere provides an intimate public space for memory work: digital social networking can inspire reciprocal connectedness with others, and blogs can therefore function both as healing platforms for individual survivors of trauma, and as expressions of communal political will. This mediation, through selfselected structures, can only strengthen democratic practice – an idea which resonates particularly in repressive contexts. Analysing the autobiographical records of ordinary people in the public domain requires a psychosocial approach drawn from literary criticism as much as from social sciences. This research therefore utilises aspects of both interpretive and critical approaches such as reader-response theory and constructivism, stemming from an underlying hermeneutic philosophy that promotes an empathic approach as well as the consideration of the influence of cultural and social forces that have been brought to bear in the context. This dialectic is essential for examining the relationship between blogger and reader, where the transmission of a first-person perspective to an engaged hearer-participant forms the key process. Socio-politically, the incorporation of context, complexity and diversity are considered in light of the recent developments in the Arab blogosphere, and the cultural, historical, and literary context of the Lebanese blogs themselves. This research is therefore situated within a qualitative framework, utilising a small but focused sample, and investigating the meanings of lived experiences. Perceived problems of reliability in this imprecise mode of analysis are countered by the fact that qualitative research tends to be exploratory rather than conclusive. This research necessarily concludes with critical social theory. I make recommendations for the further utilisation of the digitality of the medium, both in Lebanon and further afield, based on the urgent need for dialogue in multicultural societies, and the value of civil engagement in the rhetorical public sphere. The innovative potential of electronic public space for restitution after trauma, and the support of alternative narratives, is clear.

Description

Includes bibliographical references

Keywords

English Language and Literature

Reference:

Collections

PhD / Doctoral

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