The Catch-22 of Resistance: Jokes and the Political Imagination of Eritrean Conscripts

Bozzini, David

doi:10.2979/postliberationeritrea.0.0.04

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…With the exception of the 2007 special issue of the International Review of Social History which takes a historical perspective to this topic, articles and book chapters are scattered across different disciplinary publications. When explicitly considered, protest humor is often approached as a form of "liberatory politics" (Holm, 2017: 15), with scholarship emphasizing humor's role in challenging the distribution of power in society (Bozzini, 2013;Bruner, 2005;Davies, 2007;Salmi-Niklander, 2007). Often taking the Bakhtinian perspective on carnival as a temporary moment of freedom, such studies of protest humor focus their analysis on the subversion of social norms and hierarchies.…”

Section: Humor In Protestmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This may be the result of a selection bias, as most of the research consulted for this literature review examines protests with liberal democratic agendas. In such contexts, the oppressive or conservative sides of protest humor can easily be brushed to the side and addressed as recommendations for future research (Bozzini, 2013; Daǧtaş, 2016; Fominaya, 2007; ‘t Hart, 2007).…”

Section: Humor In Protestmentioning

confidence: 99%

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When protest humor is not all fun: The ambiguity of humor in the 2017 Romanian anti-corruption grassroots mobilization

Dumitrica

2021

European Journal of Communication

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This article focuses on the ambiguous ideological work of citizen-produced humor in protest. Using the case of the 2017 Romanian anti-corruption protests as empirical data, the article shows how humor can simultaneously signal grassroots creativity and resistance to power structures, and reproduce conservative gender and class hierarchies. Unlike other types of texts, humor presents itself as an innocent and light message, absolved of the need for critical scrutiny. However, protest studies need to engage in a more nuanced way with the ideological articulation of democratic politics via protest humor by asking not only how humor helps protest communication, but also how it achieves shared enjoyment, for whom, and to what consequences for the ideological articulation of democratic politics. The article concludes by proposing that researcher reflexivity can afford a new sensitivity to the ambiguousness of protest humor.

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Section: Humor In Protestmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Humor In Protestmentioning

confidence: 99%

When protest humor is not all fun: The ambiguity of humor in the 2017 Romanian anti-corruption grassroots mobilization

Dumitrica

2021

European Journal of Communication

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“…This approach helped me making sense of my informants' political attitudes in Eritrea. As observed by Bozzini (2013), explicit political statements could rarely be formulated due to the regime's harshness towards its critics. This, however, does not mean that frustration and veiled dissent are not expressed in the country.…”

Section: A Multi-sited Ethnography Of Eritrean Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This, however, does not mean that frustration and veiled dissent are not expressed in the country. Bozzini (2013), for example, illustrates the role of widespread irony and jokes in conscripts’ resistance in Eritrea. Likewise, discontent was omnipresent in my daily encounters with young Eritreans while expressing their feeling of living in an open air prison and their strong desire to leave (Belloni, 2018).…”

Section: A Multi-sited Ethnography Of Eritrean Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Human Rights Watch (HRW), 2014, 2017; UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council, 2015) – but deeply distrusted opposition groups and refused to engage in politics. Although these attitudes are sporadically reported by other commentators of Eritrea (Bozzini, 2013; Reid, 2009; Treiber, 2016), they were never systematically examined as manifestations of the same normative inconsistency, which Eritreans experience at home and in exile. However, this ambivalence becomes even more structurally embedded in their experience as refugees, since their legal status is at odds with their ongoing feelings of national belonging.…”

Section: Escapees and Patriots: Ambivalent Political Attitudes Among Eritreansmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Refugees and citizens: Understanding Eritrean refugees’ ambivalence towards homeland politics

Belloni

2018

International Journal of Comparative Sociology

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This article revisits ambivalence as a protracted state which does not simply develop as a result of the migration experience but stems from overlapping levels of normative inconsistency. Drawing from my ethnography of Eritreans' everyday life in the homeland and abroad, I analyse their attitudes of patriotism and disenchantment through an ambivalence lens. Their ambiguous attitudes are arising from national and transnational Eritrean state policies and are further complicated by their role as "political refugees" in host countries. My informants' ambivalence stems from them embodying more than one role (i.e. patriots, family breadwinners, refugees from and citizens of their homeland), from contradictory expectations pertaining to the same role (i.e. young citizens in Eritrea) and from clashing implications of being members of two different social systems (i.e. the destination country and the country of origin). Thus, Eritreans' political loyalties and actions are characterised by a state of ambivalence throughout their migration process. Despite its peculiar characteristics, this case study sheds light on the complexity of ambivalence, as more than a temporary condition, for migrants and refugees in particular. In the current scenario of emigrant states' transnational governance, protracted ambivalence is likely to mark the attitudes of an increasing number of people on the move as both refugees from and citizens of their country of origin.

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Breaking Free from Tradition: Women, National Service and Migration in Eritrea

Belloni

2019

Migrat. Lett.

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Drawing from ethnographic research with five young women living in Asmara (Eritrea), this article investigates the intersection between migration aspirations and the desire for gender –and sexual – emancipation. While an increasing amount of studies focuses on the effect of migration on gender roles and sexuality, this article aims to understand the gendered nature of migration aspirations at their outset. After a brief review of the role of women in Eritrean history, I illustrate how limited social and political freedom across the country specifically impacts on young women’s education and life trajectories in Eritrea today. Then, through the stories of my research participants, I show that migration is a space not only to imagine alternative futures but also to conceive different forms of womanhood.

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The Catch-22 of Resistance: Jokes and the Political Imagination of Eritrean Conscripts

Cited by 3 publications

References 44 publications

When protest humor is not all fun: The ambiguity of humor in the 2017 Romanian anti-corruption grassroots mobilization

When protest humor is not all fun: The ambiguity of humor in the 2017 Romanian anti-corruption grassroots mobilization

Refugees and citizens: Understanding Eritrean refugees’ ambivalence towards homeland politics

Breaking Free from Tradition: Women, National Service and Migration in Eritrea

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