Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze the life narratives “Where have All the Songs and Rituals Gone?” (2019) by Mozinha Fernandes and “A Velip Writes Back” (2019) by Priyanka Velip, members of the Adivasi community of Goa, who consider themselves as the first inhabitants of this Indian state. These narratives have been published in the blog “Hanv Konn. Who am I? Researching the Self” organized by the late professor from the University of Goa, Alito Siqueira, whose aim is to give voice to this marginalized and silenced community. The analysis will be done in terms of the concepts of Postmemory (Hirsch, 1996, 1997, 2008), Trauma (Ginzburg, 2008; Balaev, 2008), Narrative (Bruner, 2002; Coracini, 2007), and Life-narratives (Smith & Watson, 2010).
Highlights
In a recent paper, Andréa Mattos and Érika Caetano (2018) have brought the concept of postmemory to the field of Language Teaching and Language Teacher Education
What should be taken into account, is that this attitude has to do with the way in which they have been marginalized, as Fernandes states in her poem “Discrimination”: “No more can I suffer this discrimination/ Just let me live like you.”2 So much so that though the Indian Constitution in its article 342 recognizes three of the Adivasi communities of Goa, Gawdas, Kunbis and Velip as “Scheduled Tribes”, as Fernandes goes on to add: “Tribes have been transformed into castes with the policy of reservation in India
In order to carry out this discussion, we will first consider the concept of narrative as discussed by Jerome Bruner (1986; 2002), in particular the genres of testimony, as proposed by Jaime Ginzburg (2008), and life-narratives, according to Sidonie Smith and Julie Watson (2010), both of which have at their basis what Hirsch (2008; 2012) and Michelle Balaev (2008) define as intergenerational postmemory, to analyze the narratives published in Hanv konn by Priyanka Velip (2019) and Mozinha Fernandes (2019)
Summary
Andréa Mattos and Érika Caetano (2018) have brought the concept of postmemory to the field of Language Teaching and Language Teacher Education. In the last paragraph of her narrative, she says sometimes she regrets having discovered her “tribal identity” as a Gawda, but recognizes it has turned her into someone new: “I wish I had not discovered my tribal identity and faced such a situation This fact has shaped me into something different. I am interested in knowing if there are others who face crises similar to mine” (Dias, “Foreword”) In this context, this paper will focus in particular on three narratives from two Adivasi communities of Goa, Velips and Gawdas, written by women scholars during a post-graduate Sociology course at the University of Goa under the guidance of Professor Alito Siqueira and published in the Blog “Hanv Konn. In order to carry out this discussion, we will first consider the concept of narrative as discussed by Jerome Bruner (1986; 2002), in particular the genres of testimony, as proposed by Jaime Ginzburg (2008), and life-narratives, according to Sidonie Smith and Julie Watson (2010), both of which have at their basis what Hirsch (2008; 2012) and Michelle Balaev (2008) define as intergenerational postmemory, to analyze the narratives published in Hanv konn by Priyanka Velip (2019) and Mozinha Fernandes (2019)
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