ABSTRACT
This chapter examines lament that has its roots in the Hebrew Bible and proliferates as protest in modern Hebrew poetry and theorizes its raisons d’être. Through literary analysis of poetry and consideration of the features of the genre in terms of language, communication, and its dynamics of relationships, this chapter develops a conceptual framework of contemporary composition of laments in urban environments and their incorporation in public memorials. Wiseman suggests that the communal recitation of laments—ancient and new—is becoming, or again becoming, a significant means of enacting collective memory. She further suggests that this practice generates a site of public pedagogy for the construction of collective awareness, the perpetuation of questioning, and space for appropriate affective response. In tracing the trajectories of the genre as essential language for individuals whose universes have been shattered, as well as much-needed expression in contexts of collective social injustice, this chapter emphasizes the capacity of lament to make seldom-heard, muted, and never-heard voices audible.
