10 episodes
Literature, democracy and transitional justice Oxford University
-
- Education
The colloquium, ‘Literature, democracy and transitional justice’, held in Oxford 18-20 March 2018, is part of the second phase (2017-2020) in the activities of the international research network, ‘GDRI Literature and Democracy (19th-21st centuries): Theoretical, Historical and Comparative Approaches’. It brought together participants from over a dozen countries to address specific situations of transitional justice across the globe, including Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Columbia, Tunisia, South Africa, Rwanda, Taiwan, Algeria and former Yugoslavia. The event opens dialogue between scholars working on authoritarian systems and democratic transitions in the fields of literary studies, history, philosophy and law. The colloquium features the Syrian writer Zakaria Tamer. Sponsored by St John’s College; GDRI Literature and Democracy (19th-21st centuries); Maison Française Oxford; DEMOCRACY (Casa de Velázquez, Madrid) and Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation.
Conveners: Mohamed-Salah Omri (St John’s College, Oxford); Philippe Roussin (HESS, Paris); Agnès Delage (Aix-Marseille)
-
Procès, fiction, document: La reconstruction de la littérature en Europe après 1945
This paper explores the relationship between testimony and fiction in the context of transitional justice, by comparing three 1950 European literary works which use the form of interrogation, investigation, and trial.
-
Dissident Writing, Law and Transitional Justice in Tunisia
The paper explores selected testimonies and memoirs by survivors of state repression in Tunisia, in order to discuss whether their role is to be considered reformist or revolutionary after the liberation of narrative in 2011.
-
Voices of Suffering: The Incorporation of Victim Testimony in Judgements of the ICTY
This paper examines the use of victim testimony by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, discussing the role of ‘humanitarian narratives’ in our understanding of the wars of Yugoslav succession.
-
Literature and Transitional Justice After the Rwandan Genocide: Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imama
This paper discusses the problems of literary memorialization and quest for truth in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide as addressed by Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana.
-
Victims’ Narratives in the Colombian Peace Process
This paper analyses how victims’ voices were heard during the peace negotiations and in the implementation of the 2016 peace accord between the FARC guerrilla and the Colombian government.
-
The Irreverence of Bones: Reclaiming Trashed Lives in the Aftermath of Violence in Adios Ayacucho (1984) and Insensatez (2004)
By analysing two Latin American fictional narratives, this paper explores the metaphors of humanity as waste and memory as cleansing in the context of transitional justice.