Abstract
Johanna Siméant and Christophe Traïni, two French social movement scholars, author Bodies in Protest: Hunger Strikes and Angry Music, a two-part volume originally published as separate books and later paired and translated into English by the Amsterdam University Press in the Protest and Social Movements series. The pairing of Hunger Strikes and Angry Music (a term that may have lost its meaning in translation) is not an obvious choice. In some regards, hunger strikes and (angry) music are at extreme ends of the protest tactic spectrum. Yet, Bodies in Protest reminds its readers somewhat convincingly that both traditions are grounded in the body as not just the tool, but the site for action; both hinge on the emotional reactions they elicit; and both have been misunderstood and understudied in social movement literature.
In Part One, Siméant expounds the historical roots and intellectual understandings of hunger strikes and—citing her ethnographic study of undocumented immigrants in France—gives us a picture of the contemporary role hunger strikes play in protest movements. She begins by retracing the genealogy of this tradition (the first historical synthesis to date) and then addresses the lack of attention that hunger striking has received in social movement literature. Siméant challenges scholarly prejudices against hunger striking, providing evidence for the great diversity of this practice. In the latter chapters, Siméant attempts to formulate a working typology of hunger strikes.
The second half of Bodies in Protest is composed of Traïni’s thorough theoretical exposition of angry music. Traïni begins with an analysis of the expressive function of music—“evoking and provoking varied affective states”—and continues with an evaluation of the embodiment of music—literally the types of gestures and postures musicians carry (p. 105). In the earlier chapters, Traïni discusses the scant literature on the affective nature of collective action. In the latter chapters, he examines music as a political tactic in a range of social movements and concludes that he will have achieved his goal if readers note the complexity of music’s role in protest.
This two-part volume is recommended for readers interested in a diversity of social movement scholarship. Siméant’s study, in particular, fills an important void in the literature on a significant, understudied, and ever-timely form of protest, while Traïni’s piece contributes more clearly to theoretical studies on affect and culture that have such a long and rich history in French scholarship.