How is it possible to grasp stories and meanings communicated through bodily and emotional pain? Here, you will meet women who master the art of embodied storytelling. Through symptomatic expressions, symptomspeak, they share critical messages about Kosovo’s violent past and, through the past, about both the present and the future that are otherwise difficult, if not impossible to hear.
Voices of Pain
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my head is split
there is a stone in my stomach
I am worried
my neck hurts
my back hurts
heat moves up in my body
I feel cold
my mouth pulls to the side
I can’t move my arm
I am afraid to go blind
the tears keep coming
I feel nervous
my blood goes up
my heart races
I can’t sleep
I can’t wake up
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this is the language of SymptomSpeak
a language that is fragmented, exhausting and unbearable
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