Remaking a World: Violence, Social Suffering, and Recovery

by Veena Das (Editor), Arthur Kleinman (Editor), Margaret M. Lock (Editor)

Remaking a World completes a triptych of volumes on social suffering, violence, and recovery. Social Suffering, the first volume, deals with sources and major forms of social adversity, with an emphasis on political violence. The second, Violence and Subjectivity, contains graphic accounts of how collective experience of violence can alter individual subjectivity. This third volume explores the ways communities "cope" with―endure, work through, break apart under, transcend―traumatic and other more insidious forms of violence, addressing the effects of violence at the level of local worlds, interpersonal relations, and individual lives. The authors highlight the complex relationship between recognition of suffering in the public sphere and experienced suffering in people's everyday lives. Rich in local detail, the book's comparative ethnographies bring out both the recalcitrance of tragedy and the meaning of healing in attempts to remake the world.

Genres: Anthropology, Theory

302 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2001

Reviews

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straight up, I fell for the first half of Remaking a World: Violence, Social Suffering, and Recovery and then felt cheated by the second. Das, Veena builds this gorgeous, uneasy small-town mood, with the diner scene where everybody goes quiet at once, and then a late twist yanks the rug out in a way that feels cheap instead of clever. I'd still say read it, but go in knowing the landing's wobbly. For fans of slow, eerie mysteries. Skip if a letdown ending ruins a book for you.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick verdict on Remaking a World: cold, clever, and a bit too pleased with itself. What worked: Veena Das's precision, every sentence cut to size. What didn't: I never felt a thing. Recommend for admirers of craft, skip if you read for heart.