Yuval Noah Harari

Bio: Yuval Noah Harari is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Authority. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 31 citations.

Scholars, Eyewitnesses, and Flesh-Witnesses of War: A Tense Relationship

Abstract: The article explores the complex relations between scholars and witnesses of war, taking as a test-case Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front . The article defines two types of witnesses, which lay claim to two distinct types of authority: eyewitnesses, who lay claim to the factual authority gained from the objective observation of events; and flesh-witnesses, who lay claim to the experiential authority gained from having personally undergone certain experiences. Eyewitnesses are a valuable and relatively docile source of scholarly information, providing scholars with data about war without challenging the scholars' ability to process this data. The authority of eyewitnesses thereby backs up the authority of scholars. In contrast, flesh-witnesses often challenge the ability of scholars to understand the experience of war. They thereby undermine the authority of scholars, and set themselves up as an alternative and superior authority on war.

The experience of sickness and health during crusader campaigns to the Eastern Mediterranean, 1095-1274

Abstract: This thesis proposes the reading of medieval chronicles, specifically those of the crusades, for their medical content. The crusades left a mark on the historical record in the form of dozens of narrative sources, but texts such as these are rarely considered as sources for medical history. Chapter 1 suggests how chronicles can be used to discover how medical knowledge permeated the literate society of the Middle Ages, and at the same time, by reading the crusader chronicles in a medical mode, to learn more about the lived experience of crusaders and the narrative art of crusader chroniclers. Chapter 2 responds to Roy Porter’s highly-influential concept of ‘the patient’s view’ by engaging with critiques of this concept and developing a method to apply it to medieval sources, ‘the chronicler’s-eye view’, demonstrated through a linguistic survey of the identity of sick crusaders and crusaders who offered medical care. The next three chapters take the ‘chroniclers’-eye view’ of the experience of sick crusaders in three spatial and military contexts. Chapter 3 shows how the crusader march could engender poor health by exposing the travelling crusader to different environments, while Chapter 4 explores conditions for crusaders in port and at sea. Chapter 5 is a detailed examination of the health of crusaders during siege engagements. Finally, chapter 6 shows how the health of a particular facet of crusading society, the crusader leader, had significance for the leader himself and those who followed him. Throughout the key focus is on how the health of crusaders was represented by contemporary chronicles and what narrative significance is revealed by reading these texts for their medical content.

Of bats and bodies: methods for reading and writing embodiment

Abstract: Military memoirs are embodied texts of war. They therefore pose particular challenges to scholars who work with them, as they seem to insist on the uniqueness of particular wartime experiences and the impossibility of communicating these embodied experiences to a wider public. In this article I unpack some of the tensions in the ways that war scholarship approaches these ‘flesh-witness accounts’ (Harari, 2008; 2009) and argue that these can productively be challenged, in ways that open up new possibilities for research methods. I begin by explaining what is meant by ‘flesh-witnessing’ and the significance of corporeal experience in constructing particular stories about war. From this I argue that while placing significance on embodiment when studying war is crucial, embodiment is not a concept that should be assigned to others ‘over there’, without also acknowledging how it affects ‘us’ ‘back home’ as civilians and scholars. Rather, embodiment as a concept compels us to analyse its numerous ‘entanglements’ (Mensch, 2009), which in turn challenge us to rethink the relationship between the ‘author’ and the ‘reader’ of military memoirs. Reflecting on my own work with these memoirs, and learning to pay attention to what I do and feel as I read and write, I chart a series of methods for reading and writing embodiment.

Embodying Difference: Reading Gender in Women's Memoirs of Humanitarianism

Abstract: This article explores embodied difference in humanitarianism and peacebuilding by treating women's memoirs as a form of ‘flesh witnessing’. It argues that the essays in the anthology Chasing Misery...

Testimonial rallies and the construction of memetic authenticity

Abstract: This article traces the role of ‘testimonial rallies’ – Internet memes in which participants post personal photos and/or written accounts as part of a coordinated political protest – in the formula...