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Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition PDF

316 Pages·2004·1.19 MB·English
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Sidonie_FM.qxd 22/6/04 4:26 PM Page i Human Rights and Narrated Lives This page intentionally left blank Sidonie_FM.qxd 22/6/04 4:26 PM Page iii Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition Kay Schaffer Sidonie Smith Sidonie_FM.qxd 22/6/04 9:08 PM Page iv © HUMAN RIGHTS AND NARRATED LIVES All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 1–4039–6494–7 ISBN 1–4039–6495–5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schaffer, Kay, 1945– Human rights and narrated lives : the ethics of recognition / Kay Schaffer, Sidonie Smith. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1–4039–6494–7 (hardcover) ISBN 1–4039–6495–5 (paperback) 1. Human rights. 2. Personal narratives. I. Smith, Sidonie. II. Title. JC571.S354 2004 323—dc22 2003067786 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: August 2004 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. Sidonie_FM.qxd 22/6/04 4:26 PM Page v To activists and witnesses involved in human rights struggles around the world This page intentionally left blank Sidonie_FM.qxd 22/6/04 4:26 PM Page vii C o n t e n t s Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights 13 2 The Venues of Storytelling 35 3 Truth, Reconciliation, and the Traumatic Past of South Africa 53 4 Indigenous Human Rights in Australia: Who Speaks for the Stolen Generations? 85 5 Belated Narrating: “Grandmothers” Telling Stories of Forced Sexual Slavery During World War II 123 6 Life Sentences: Narrated Lives and Prisoner Rights in the United States 153 7 Post-Tiananmen Narratives and the New China 187 Conclusion 223 Notes 235 Bibliography 253 Index 281 This page intentionally left blank Sidonie_FM.qxd 22/6/04 4:26 PM Page ix A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s The idea for an extended study of the uses of personal narratives in campaigns for human rights arose during the first meeting of the International Auto/Biography Association in Beijing in June 1999. “All I have is my story” became a phrase challenging us to consider peoples’ rights to their own stories. With that nub of an idea we applied to the Rockefeller Center program in Bellagio, Italy, for a joint fellowship that would enable us to begin our collaborative mapping of the relationship between storytelling and human rights as they intersect across the domains of law and literature. The month at Villa Serbolini not only delighted our senses, it also enabled us to do preliminary reading and thinking about the history and philosophical foundations of the human rights regime and its many critiques. Most particularly, we thank José Antonio Aguilar Rivera, fellow Serbolini confrérè and Mexican political scientist, for his generous reading of our first attempt at presenting this background. José complicated our arguments and returned us to the drawing board to reconsider how we wanted to situate our larger argument about life writing in the field of human rights. Fortunately, we have been able to work side-by-side frequently over the last four years. Our debts of gratitude for making these meet- ings possible go to the Humanities Research Centre (HRC) at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra and to the School of Humanities at Curtin University of Technology in Perth. In Spring 2003, the HRC at the ANU sponsored a year-long project on “The Humanities, Culture, and Human Rights.” For six uninterrupted weeks we were able to pursue our project and to engage in dialogues with colleagues whose interests we shared, among them Norbert Finch, John Docker, and Margaret Jolly. Carolyn Turner, deputy director of the HRC, welcomed and supported us in our fellowship. To the Feministas, a collaborative of feminist historians at the ANU, which includes Georgiana Clauson, Ann Curthoys, Desley Deacon, Rosanne Kennedy, Jill Matthews, and Ann McGrath, we owe a special debt for their rigorous critique of an early version of the introduction.

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