From personal narrative to global call for action

Abstract

AbstractThis 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 in2015. In 2014, when two Western mass media outlets interviewed Murad, her narrative was compacted and less detailed. This shifted in December2015when 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.