Palgrave Macmillan has just published a book by Polish researchers entitled Rediscovering Kurdistan’s Cultures and Identities: The Call of the Cricket. Currently, it is only available as an e-book, but paper edition will be available soon.
The book, edited by Dr Joanna Bocheńska from the JU Institute of Oriental Studies, is the result of a 5-year research project How to make a voice audible? Continuity and change of Kurdish culture and of social reality in postcolonial perspectives funded in 2013–2018 by the National Science Centre as well as two individual studies conducted by Dr Karol Kaczorowski and Dr Artur Rodziewicz.
Rediscovering Kurdistan’s Cultures and Identities: The Call of the Cricket ‘marks a major addition to Kurdish studies. It paints an innovative, historically differentiated, and theoretically informed picture of cultural and religious life among different ethnic groups in Kurdistan, and among Kurds living elsewhere. Jointly, its contributions take us far beyond the reductionist narratives of conflict, war, and resistance that dominate much of the existing literature’, wrote Prof. Michiel Leezenberg from the University of Amsterdam.
According to Prof. Martin van Bruinessen from the University of Utrecht, ‘Joanna Bocheńska and her colleagues have placed Kraków on the map as a vibrant centre of Kurdish studies. This book gives an excellent overview of the wide range of their interests and the originality of their approach. Each of the chapters contributes new insights in the social and cultural dynamics of modern Kurdish society, with a strong emphasis on religious minorities. Highly recommended to both scholars and the general public’.
The book consists of 7 chapters and an introduction. It covers the following topics: Between Honour and Dignity: Kurdish literary and cinema narratives and their attempt to rethink identity and resistance (Joanna Bocheńska), The Socio-Political Role of Modern Kurdish Cultural Institutions (Renata Kurpiewska-Korbut), Countering Othering: Social negotiations of identity among new Kurdish migrants in Istanbul (Karol Kaczorowski), Translation, Power and Domination: The postcolonial explorations of the Bible in the Kurdish context (Marcin Rzepka), Ethnic and Religious Factors of Chaldo-Assyrian Identity in an Interface with the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan (Krzysztof Lalik), and The Nation of the Sur: The Yezidi identity between modern and ancient myth (Artur Rodziewicz).
