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What Palestinian Girls Want: “Reading” Adolescence in Their Autograph Books

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Dana Hercbergs
Dana Hercbergs*
Affiliation:
Graduate Program in Folklore & Folklife, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.; e-mail: hercbergs@yahoo.com
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Extract

Autograph books (“memory books”) circulate among adolescent students, who fill their pages with dedications, memories, and wishes for the future. Although related genres like yearbooks and personal websites are replacing them, in East Jerusalem the tradition continues to evolve alongside newer media. In interviews with Palestinian women about the memories evoked by these keepsakes, I delve into the turbulent period of adolescence to explore such issues as friendship, romance, school, and home life. I treat autograph books as records of the changes that have occurred in Palestinian youth culture over the last fifty years and as catalysts for women's reflections about these changes.

Type
Quick Studies
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , May 2009 , pp. 181 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

NOTES

1 Saʿar, Amalia, “Many Ways of Becoming a Woman: The Case of Unmarried Israeli Palestinian Girls,” Ethnology 43 (2003): 1–18Google Scholar.

2 Katriel, Tamar and Farrell, Thomas, “Scrapbooks as Cultural Texts: An American Art of Memory,” Text and Performance Quarterly 11 (1991): 1–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.