Abstract
ABSTRACT This study investigates the discursive construction of secular martyrdom in contemporary Arab discourse by analysing 215 Arabic public martyr texts in which martyrdom was used in non-religious contexts. Theoretically grounded in notions of memory [Castelli, E., 2004. Martyrdom and memory. New York: Columbia University Press] and embodied martyrdom [DeSoucey, M., et al., 2008. Memory and sacrifice: An embodied theory of martyrdom. Cultural sociology, 2 (1), 99–121]. The analysis shows that Arab secular martyrdom is employed to memorialise people who lost their lives as a result of political assassination, while performing a public duty or expressing dissenting political views, or who were victims of tragic disasters or killed as journalists while covering conflicts. These secular martyrs are discursively constructed as victims of oppression, injustice or bureaucratic failure and neglect. While religious references are used in these texts, they can be seen as formulaic expressions that do not confer religious meanings upon the martyrdom event. However, their use points to the fluidity of martyrdom within the religious-secular dichotomy and the non-fixity of this binary. The discursive construction of Arab secular martyrdom offers support to a theoretical conceptualisation of secular martyrdom in terms of collective memory, sacrifice, victimhood and bodily suffering.
Published Version
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