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Writing gendered memories of repression in Northern Ireland

Begoña Aretxaga at the doors of the prison

Brown University, USA

This article explores Begoña Aretxaga's research on women, nationalism and political subjectivity in Northern Ireland during `the troubles' by considering her writings as a field worker as they bear on her work as an ethnographer and theoretical innovator. My goal is to illustrate the knowledge production and representational strategies integral to Aretxaga's analysis of violence, state power, and politicized ethnic minorities in European democracies. The article centers on correspondence between Aretxaga and a republican woman prisoner that evolved into a dialogue about coming of age in situations of state repression and counternationalist resistance. This analysis also considers the ways that women built their own cultural and social worlds in prison as a counterpoint to the changing techniques of prison control from 1971 through the early 1990s.

Key Words: anthropological fieldnotes • Begoña Aretxaga • counter nationalisms • memory • Northern Ireland • political subjectivity • prison management technologies • violent repression and democracy • women in prison

Anthropological Theory, Vol. 7, No. 1, 9-35 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1463499607074288


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