My Voice Is My Weapon: Music, Nationalism, and the Poetics of Palestinian Resistance

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Duke University Press, Nov 6, 2013 - Music - 360 pages
In My Voice Is My Weapon, David A. McDonald rethinks the conventional history of the Palestinian crisis through an ethnographic analysis of music and musicians, protest songs, and popular culture. Charting a historical narrative that stretches from the late-Ottoman period through the end of the second Palestinian intifada, McDonald examines the shifting politics of music in its capacity to both reflect and shape fundamental aspects of national identity. Drawing case studies from Palestinian communities in Israel, in exile, and under occupation, McDonald grapples with the theoretical and methodological challenges of tracing "resistance" in the popular imagination, attempting to reveal the nuanced ways in which Palestinians have confronted and opposed the traumas of foreign occupation. The first of its kind, this book offers an in-depth ethnomusicological analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, contributing a performative perspective to the larger scholarly conversation about one of the world's most contested humanitarian issues.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Chapter 1 Nationalism Belonging and the Performativity of Resistance
17
Voices in the Resistance Movement 19171967
34
Chapter 3 AlNaksa and the Emergence of Political Song 19671987
78
Chapter 4 The First Intifada and the Generation of Stones 19872000
116
The alAqsa Intifada 20002010
144
Baladna and Protest Song in Jordan
163
Negotiating Power and Resistance in Palestinian Protest Song
199
Palestinian HipHop in Israel
231
DAM Brings HipHop to the West Bank
262
Epilogue
283
Song Lyric Transliterations
287
Notes
305
Bibliography
321
Index
331
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About the author (2013)

David A. McDonald is Assistant Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, Bloomington.

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