Witnessing the socially dead : testimony, violence, and Sarah

Witnessing the socially dead : testimony, violence, and Sarah

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This paper critiques the assumption, common in academic studies on survivor testimony, that trauma or pain renders the witness speechless. Through an in-depth analysis of Sarah, an extremely marginalised, socially dead, survivor-witness of multiple violences during times of war and peace in northern...

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Main Author: van Voorthuysen, Hannah
Language:English
Published: University of British Columbia 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2429/37374
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spelling ndltd-LACETR-oai-collectionscanada.gc.ca-BVAU.2429-373742014-03-26T03:38:08Z Witnessing the socially dead : testimony, violence, and Sarah van Voorthuysen, Hannah This paper critiques the assumption, common in academic studies on survivor testimony, that trauma or pain renders the witness speechless. Through an in-depth analysis of Sarah, an extremely marginalised, socially dead, survivor-witness of multiple violences during times of war and peace in northern Uganda, I consider how such witnesses communicate in embodied ways to outline the nature of violences that they experience. Given that witnessing is a relational practice, I then explore the creative, empathetic, and imaginative ways that researchers or listeners should respond to such testimonies in order to do justice to the testimony told. 2011-09-15T18:28:22Z 2011-09-15T18:28:22Z 2011 2011-09-15 2011-11 Electronic Thesis or Dissertation http://hdl.handle.net/2429/37374 eng University of British Columbia
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
description This paper critiques the assumption, common in academic studies on survivor testimony, that trauma or pain renders the witness speechless. Through an in-depth analysis of Sarah, an extremely marginalised, socially dead, survivor-witness of multiple violences during times of war and peace in northern Uganda, I consider how such witnesses communicate in embodied ways to outline the nature of violences that they experience. Given that witnessing is a relational practice, I then explore the creative, empathetic, and imaginative ways that researchers or listeners should respond to such testimonies in order to do justice to the testimony told.
author van Voorthuysen, Hannah
spellingShingle van Voorthuysen, Hannah
Witnessing the socially dead : testimony, violence, and Sarah
author_facet van Voorthuysen, Hannah
author_sort van Voorthuysen, Hannah
title Witnessing the socially dead : testimony, violence, and Sarah
title_short Witnessing the socially dead : testimony, violence, and Sarah
title_full Witnessing the socially dead : testimony, violence, and Sarah
title_fullStr Witnessing the socially dead : testimony, violence, and Sarah
title_full_unstemmed Witnessing the socially dead : testimony, violence, and Sarah
title_sort witnessing the socially dead : testimony, violence, and sarah
publisher University of British Columbia
publishDate 2011
url http://hdl.handle.net/2429/37374
work_keys_str_mv AT vanvoorthuysenhannah witnessingthesociallydeadtestimonyviolenceandsarah
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