Narratives of Conflict, Belonging, and the State

Using key perspectives from linguistic anthropology, Narratives of Conflict, Belonging, and the State: Discourse and Social Life in Post-War Ireland (Routledge, 2018) illuminates how social actors take up the ideals of law, equality, and democratic representation in locally meaningful ways to make their own national history in ways that may perpetuate violence and inequality. Focusing specifically on post-war conditions in Ireland, Brigittine M. French contextualizes commonplace practices by which citizens are made to learn the gap between official membership in and political belonging to a democratic state. French is a professor of anthropology and chair of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program.