Murmurs of Presence in Objects of Absence

Abstract

This article takes two artifacts belonging to two people the author met in the course of many decades of research in and on Palestine—a British Mandate-era identity card and a set of framed photographs of a Palestinian village destroyed in the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948—as central objects of consideration in reflecting on how objects of absence incorporate historical and personal loss as well as continuing presence. The use of the term “objects of absence” to describe these materials points to how they are more than repositories of memory. They record, preserve, and animate forms of life that appear lost. Rather than being noisy eruptions into public life, their volume is more of a murmur. Their collective impact is in their repeated presence rather than their spectacular pronouncements. Palestinians preserve these objects for themselves, for their children and following generations, for their community, and for their nation. The work of these objects is thus personal and political, individual and collective. They help people locate themselves in the world, maintaining some continuity despite the devastation of the Nakba.