The Testimony of Traumatic and Violent conflict: Pukhtu Poetry in Swat in Retrospect

Abstract

The post 2001conflict and violence in Swat, northern Pakistan, has devastated different arenas of the social fabric of the Pukhtuns living in the region. In this context, the impact of conflict and associated violence on Pukhtu poetry and poets of the region is highly significant. During the conflict, the ‘space’ for the literary people shrunk, which also played an important role in the transformation of local poetry and adopting new subjects with the prominence of themes like violent extremism, terror and migration in the poetry. Moreover, this study uses trauma and testimony theories to identify and understand the traumatic events and the process of testimony in indigenous Pukhtu poetry. The arguments are based on 18 in-depth interviews with poets and intellectuals from Matta Tehsil (administrative unit) of Swat combined with ethnographic observation and published work of poets from the same administrative unit.