Volatile Emotions

On the Nose

On this episode of On the Nose—recorded at an online event on October 30th—editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with author Naomi Klein and writer and clinical psychologist Hala Alyan about the place of feelings and affect in the movement for Palestinian liberation. They discuss the role of grief and rage, how movements can accommodate affective diversity, and what it means to channel emotions politically.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).

Texts Mentioned and Further Resources:

“How Israel has made trauma a weapon of war,” Naomi Klein, The Guardian

The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After the Holocaust by Marianne Hirsch

Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture by Alison Landsberg

“‘Chronic traumatic stress disorder’: the Palestinian psychiatrist challenging western definitions of trauma,” Bethan McKernan, The Guardian

“Can the Palestinian Mourn?,” Abdaljawad Omar, Rusted Radishes

“‘Resistance Through a Realist Lens,’” Arielle Angel in conversation with Abdaljawad Omar, Jewish Currents

“Mourning and Melancholia,” Sigmund Freud

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

“One Year,” Palestinian Youth Movement, The New Inquiry (originally published in The New York War Crimes)

Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative by Isabella Hammad

“A Surge in American Jewish Left Organizing,” On the Nose, Jewish Currents

“Gaza and the Coming Age of the ‘Warrior,’” Ghassan Hage, Allegra

“One Year,” Arielle Angel, Jewish Currents newsletter

The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist by Emile Habibi

“Theses on the Philosophy of History,” Walter Benjamin

Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

“Naomi Klein on Israel’s ‘Doppelganger Politics,’” On the Nose, Jewish Currents

“Unpacking the Campus Antisemitism Narrative,” On the Nose, Jewish Currents

“The Power of Changing Your Mind,” Hala Alyan, Time