Voicing Subjects

Nepal's recent history is extraordinary: within a short span of time, the country endured a relatively peaceful 1990 revolution that reestablished democracy, a Maoist civil war, and the massacre of its royal family. As these dramatic changes were taking place, Nepalese society experienced an upsurge in both political and intimate discourse, and the two became intertwined as they developed. Voicing Subjects is an ethnography that explores that phenomenon, tracing the relationship between public speech and notions of personal interiority in Kathmandu by examining the two formations of voice that emerged: a political voice, associated with civic empowerment and collective agency, and an intimate voice, associated with emotional proximity and authentic feeling. Using personal interviews and examples in the media--in particular, radio--Kunreuther's careful study reveals the figure of voice as a critical tool for gaining an in-depth understanding of emerging subjectivity, structural change, and cultural mediation.