Medical Anthropologist Orkideh Behrouzan and Arabic and Comparative Literature-ist Nora Parr introduce themselves, their research, and talk a little about how they approached the 'Beyond Trauma Project.' They introduce the project Web Hub--its aims, its structure, and what you might find on its pages! (the site is now dark, but content can be found here and on Orkideh's page www.beyondtraumaproject.com)

Arabic Literature and Beyond Trauma

Elias Khoury sat down to chat with Nora Parr ahead of the launch of _My Name is Adam_, the English translation of his latest work (in Arabic: Chilren of the Ghetto)at SOAS in October 2018. He explains the meaning of 'trauma' when it comes to narrating the Palestinian Nakba, the problems the term imposes, and the necessity of developing techniques to read the 'silence' that history and the trauma narrative have imposed.

Episode 1 - Trauma and the Nakba with Elias Khoury and Nora Parr

What is the Arabic for Trauma?

Welcome to a podcast series that tries to find answers to a slightly convoluted question. 

Convoluted because there is a short answer: trauma in Arabic is simply sadma-- meaning ‘shock’ or ‘impact.’ 

The problem, and what makes this such a compelling question to ask, is that sadma was used to translate Freud’s notion of trauma into Arabic in the early 19th century …. 

It was never meant to indicate the specific set of factors that determined the identification or understanding of Harm in the Arabic speaking world. 

So just using Sadma actually occludes a lot of knowledge

I’m your host Nora Parr. 

Join me every month or so a new angle on the question: What is the Arabic for trauma? I’ll be speaking with historians, literary critics, anthropologists, writers, and mental health practitioners to try and build an answer to the question.

What's the Arabic for Trauma?

Popular tracks