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

VICTIMS’ STORIES OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE: THE ETHICS OF OWNERSHIP, DISSEMINATION, AND RECEPTION

Metaphilosophy

This paper addresses three commentaries on Victims’ Stories and the Advancement of Human Rights. In response to Vittorio Bufacchi, I argue that asking victims to tell their stories needn’t be coercive or unjust and that victims are entitled to decide whether and under what conditions to tell their stories. In response to Serene Khader, I argue that empathy with victims’ stories can contribute to building a culture of human rights provided that measures are taken to overcome the implicit biases and colonialist interpellations she identifies. In response to Andrea Westlund, I propose a taxonomy of types of narrative closure, and I offer some arguments to strengthen her view that empathy with victims’ stories endows audience members with a new reason and new motivation to support human rights

Gendered Narratives: Stories and Silences in Transitional Justice

Human Rights Review, 2015

Stories told about violence, trauma, and loss inform knowledge of postconflict societies. Stories have a context which is part of the story-teller's life narrative. Reasons for silences are varied. This article affirms the importance of telling and listening to stories and notes the significance of silences within transitional justice's narratives. It does this in three ways. First, it outlines a critical narrative theory of transitional justice which confirms the importance of narrative agency in telling or withholding stories. Relatedly, it affirms the importance of story-telling as a way to explain differentiated gender requirements within transitional justice processes. Second, it examines gendered differences in the ways that women are silenced by shame, choose silence to retain self-respect, use silence as a strategy of survival, or an agential act. Third, it argues that compassionate listening requires gender-sensitive responses that recognize the narrator's sense of self and needs.

Tragedy of Victimisation Rhetoric 15HarvHumRtsJ1.pdf

The victim subject is a transnational phenomenon. It occurs, at least within legal discourse, in both the "West" and the Third World. However, the Third World victim subject has come to represent the more victimized subject; that is, the real or authentic victim subject. Feminist politics in the international human rights arena, as well as in parts of the Third World, have promoted this image of the authentic victim subject while advocating for women's human rights. In this Article, I examine how the international women's rights movement has reinforced the image of the woman as a victim subject, primarily through its focus on violence against women (VAW). I use the example of India to examine how this subject has been replicated in the post-colonial context, and the more general implications this kind of move has on women's rights.

Victims, Their Stories, and Our Rights

Metaphilosophy

Diana Meyers argues that breaking the silence of victims and attending to their stories are necessary steps towards realizing human rights. Yet using highly personal victims stories to promote human rights raises significant moral concerns, hence Meyers suggests that before victims stories can be accessed and used, it is morally imperative that requirements of informed consent and nonretraumatization are secured. This article argues that while Meyers proviso is important, and necessary, it may not be sufficient. First, one potential problem with seeking to secure "informed consent" is that one has to ask for the consent, and in the act of asking one is potentially retraumatizing the victim. Secondly, the assumption that victims have ownership right over their stories, which is a key premise in Meyerss argument, is much more problematic than may appear.

Politicizing the Personal: Reading Gender-Based Violence in Rape Survivor Discourse

Rape is about power. Women writing about their experiences of rape often find that the disempowering effects of rape continues into the aftermath when they face a hostile environment that frequently denies and silences their experience. Even where rape circumstances fit within the definitions of the ‘standard rape narrative’, survivors must still compete against victim-blaming attitudes, rape myths and cultural silencing. In order to find an audience to bear witness to the trauma, women often have to perform according to social expectations, modify their emotions to be accepted and dilute any politically disruptive messages. To cultivate an awareness of the complex and multifaceted influences and power dynamics shaping the rape story, I examine the development and production of survivor discourse. I argue for the value in conceptualizing three primary ‘gatekeepers’ of the rape story (cultural, literary and judicial) that force a particular kind of story to emerge, which can lead to survivor narratives paradoxically perpetuating rape myths and recuperating dominant discourses. In the last few decades, disciplines of criminology, social psychology, linguistics, and legal studies have used a variety of social research methodologies to enhance understandings of rape myths and the context within which survivors make sense of their experience. Nonetheless, published autobiographical texts remain an underutilized resource that can offer further insight into the influence of readers and the literary market in shaping the rape story. My methodological approach engages a feminist critical analysis of Alice Sebold’s Lucky (2002 [1999]), Frances Driscoll’s The Rape Poems (1997) and Jamie Kalven’s Working with Available Light (1999) positioned within a socio-legal conceptual framework and informed by an understanding of trauma. These texts diverge from conventional ways of representing the rape story, compelling their audience to understand rape as prevalent and everyday gender-based violence. They resist the redemptive narrative arc, thereby politicizing their individual stories and challenging the complicity of the community. Driscoll also rejects narratives of ‘personal growth’ that position rape as a difficult personal experience which one can overcome by adopting a survivor mentality. I include Kalven’s memoir of his wife’s rape to examine the nuances of power, privilege and the competition over the meaning of rape for survivors. I argue that while Kalven makes a case for rape to be considered torture, his account is troubling as he takes ownership of his wife’s story and enacts discursive violence by producing a text that disempowers the survivor. This constrains the political potential of his memoir. Far from individualizing the rape story, a critical analysis of these diverse texts illustrates how survivor narratives can challenge rape myths, victim culpability and dominant discourses. Throughout this thesis I argue for the value of reading autobiographical texts alongside rape scholarship to facilitate an engaged understanding of the way discourses on rape are mutually reinforcing and are produced and reproduced across a range of discursive sites.