From personal narrative to global call for action
The case of Yezidi survivor Nadia Murad
This paper examines personal narratives and how they change according to the context in which they are narrated. In particular, it argues
that personal narratives change as they are mediated by various discourses, genres and modes, as well as by the peculiarities that emerge
when speaking and writing in different languages and when undertaking translation. It uses a case-study approach to analyse the different
narratives told by Islamic State’s Yezidi female survivor, and United Nations Goodwill ambassador, Nadia Murad, in different contexts in
2014 and in
2015. In 2014, when two Western mass media outlets interviewed Murad, her narrative
was compacted and less detailed. This shifted in December
2015 when Murad testified about her
ordeal before the Security Council. Mediated by the discourse of the latter and by the genre of testimony, Murad’s narrative became more
detailed, and transformed from a description of a personal suffering into a call for action.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Theoretical framework
- Method and data collection
- Contextual background
- The case study of Nadia Murad
- Conclusions
-
Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
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