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Thoughts on Appropriation: Collaboration for

image of Thoughts on Appropriation: Collaboration for Silkmoth

When I was asked by composer Bushra El-Turk to write the libretto for a one-woman opera about honour violence I was faced with two major challenges: how to write a family drama for a single voice, and how to tell an authentic story that was not part of my own experience. Reflecting on what opera can do as a form and speaking to survivors of honour violence at the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO) at a time when the law in the UK about coercive control was being implemented shed new light on what had hitherto been regarded in some quarters as a cultural phenomenon. ‘Thoughts on Appropriation’ reflects on the creative processes that brought ‘Silkmoth’ to the stage and some of the tensions that arose as it passed into the repertoire.

Keywords: Bushra El-Turk ; coercive control ; collaboration ; drama ; honour violence ; libretto ; music ; Nour Festival ; opera ; voice and text

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References

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  4. Goddison, Bruce (2016), Murdered by My Father, UK: BBC3.
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  7. IKWRO Women's Right Organisation (n. d.), IKWRO website, https://IKWRO.org.uk. Accessed 31 October 2023.
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References

  1. Barthes, Roland (1967), ‘The Death of the Author’, in Barthes, Roland (1977), Image-Music-Text, London: Macmillan.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Coghlan, A. (2017), ‘Death becomes her’, The Spectator, 1 April, https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/death-becomes-her/. Accessed 19 September 2023.
  3. El-Turk, B. and Knight, E. (2015), Silkmoth, London: Composers’ Edition.
  4. Goddison, Bruce (2016), Murdered by My Father, UK: BBC3.
  5. Goode, C. (2020), Honour: Achieving Justice for Banaz Mahmod, London: Oneworld.
  6. Higgins, Charlotte (2016), ‘Is opera the most misogynistic artform?’, The Guardian, 26 February, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/26/is-opera-the-most-misogynistic-art-form. Accessed 2 September 2022 .
  7. IKWRO Women's Right Organisation (n. d.), IKWRO website, https://IKWRO.org.uk. Accessed 31 October 2023.
  8. Liao, P. (1990), ‘“Of writing words for music which is already made”: Madame Butterfly, Turandot, and orientalism’, Cultural Critique, 16, pp. 31–59.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Poetry Foundation (n. d.), Poetry Foundation website, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/. Accessed 31 October 2023.
  10. Rights of Women (n. d.), Rights of Women website, https://www.rightsofwomen.org.uk/. Accessed 31 October 2023.
  11. Szablowski, W. (2013), The Assassin of Apricot City, London: Stork Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Thomas, S. (2012), Monkeys with Typewriters, Edinburgh: Canongate.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Winterson, J. (2012), Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, London: Vintage.
     [Google Scholar]

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