Exceptionality of Space: Sexual Violence in “The Camp. A Little Girl from Karabakh” by Gunel Movlud

Abstract

In the autobiographical novel “The Camp. A Little Girl from Karabakh” the Azerbaijani author Gunel Movlud describes her experiences of living in a refugee camp in the Sabirabad region of Azerbaijan. Movlud was forced to flee her home town in the Nagorno-Karabakh region during the First Karabakh War(1988-1994). For five years, she lived in the tent camp. In the novel, Movlud describes the hardships of the life in the camp and different characters from her personal perspective. What is striking from her observations is the amount of sexual violence apparent in the camp and the seemingly tacit acceptance of the camp inhabitants. This paper seeks to find a theoretical explanation for the violence encountered in the camp. The analysis is based on the novel itself as well as an interview conducted with the author. It is found that Agamben’s idea of the exceptionality of space and Bourdieu’s notion of symbolic violence can help explain the violence encountered in the camp. In the author’s view it was women in the end who appeared stronger than men and who held the social fabric of the camp together.