To come to Burma, one of the few places where despotism still
dominates, is to take both a physical and an emotional journey and,
like most Burmese, to become caught up in the daily management of
fear. Based on Monique Skidmore's experiences living in the capital
city of Rangoon, Karaoke Fascism is the first ethnography of fear
in Burma and provides a sobering look at the psychological
strategies employed by the Burmese people in order to survive under
a military dictatorship that seeks to invade and dominate every
aspect of life. Skidmore looks at the psychology and politics of
fear under the SLORC and SPDC regimes. Encompassing the period of
antijunta student street protests, her work describes a project of
authoritarian modernity, where Burmese people are conscripted as
army porters and must attend mass rallies, chant slogans, construct
roads, and engage in other forms of forced labor. In a harrowing
portrayal of life deep within an authoritarian state, recovering
heroin addicts, psychiatric patients, girl prostitutes, and poor
and vulnerable women in forcibly relocated townships speak about
fear, hope, and their ongoing resistance to four decades of
oppression. "Karaoke fascism" is a term the author uses to describe
the layers of conformity that Burmese people present to each other
and, more important, to the military regime. This complex veneer
rests on resistance, collaboration, and complicity, and describes
not only the Burmese form of oppression but also the Burmese
response to a life of domination. Providing an inside look at the
madness and the militarization of the city, Skidmore argues that
the weight of fear, the anxiety of constant vulnerability, and the
numbing demands of the State upon individuals force Burmese people
to cast themselves as automata; they deliberately present lifeless
hollow bodies for the State's use, while their minds reach out into
the cosmos for an array of alternate realities. Skidmore raises
ethical and methodological questions about conducting research on
fear when doing so evokes the very emotion in question, in both
researcher and informant.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
