Narrative Structures Narratives of Abuse. and Human Rights (original) (raw)

A number of late 20th-early 2lst century political and intellectual movements put a spotlight on the value of listening to silenced voices. Picking up on these trends, philosophers have addressed a number of pertinent themes, including respect, empathy, and credibility. Less thoroughly explored is the relation between victims' stories and normativity. This paper examines two theories of narrative-one by Hayden White and the other by Anthony Amsterdam and Jerome Bruner-and argues that neither adequately accounts for the capacity of victims' stories of abuse to advance understanding ofand increase respect for human rights. To better appreciate the contribution of victims' stories to human rights advocacy, I propose an account of the relation between normativity and a type of fractured story that traumatized victims often tell. A number of late 20th-early 21st century political and intellectual movements put a spotlight on the value of listening to silenced voices. In consciousness raising sessions, second wave feminists exchanged stories of their everyday lives and used these stories to construct theories of gender and to formulate political agendas.l Soon women of color and lesbians in western as well as developing nations objected that middleclass white feminists had silenced them and consequently misrepresented womanhood and the needs of women as a group.2 In law schools, critical race theorists made the case that white supremacy could not be eradicated unless personal stories of racial oppression were injected into U.S. legal proceedings.3 Recent truth commissions in South Africa and Peru and war crimes tribunals in the Hague and Rwanda have reaffirmed the right to a voice of one's own.