Human Rights, Suffering, and Aesthetics in Political Prison Literature PDF
Preview Human Rights, Suffering, and Aesthetics in Political Prison Literature
Human Rights, Suffering, and Aesthetics in Political Prison Literature Human Rights, Suffering, and Aesthetics in Political Prison Literature Edited by Yenna Wu with Simona Livescu LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK Published by Lexington Books A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.lexingtonbooks.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2011 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Human rights, suffering, and aesthetics in political prison literature / edited by Yenna Wu, with Simona Livescu. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7391-6741-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7391-6742-7 (e-book) 1. Political prisoners—Civil rights. 2. Prisoners’ writings—History and criticism. I. Wu, Yenna. II. Livescu, Simona. HV6254.H86 2011 365'.45—dc22 2011012282 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America Contents Preface vii YennaWu 1 Introduction 1 YennaWu 2 RevivingMutedVoices:RhizomatousForcesinPoliticalPrison Literature 17 YennaWu 3 SurvivingTraumaticCaptivity,ArrivingatWisdom:An AestheticsofResistanceinChinesePrisonCampMemoir 47 YennaWu 4 TheArgumentfromSilence:Morocco’sTruthCommissionand WomenPoliticalPrisoners 87 SusanSlyomovics 5 ThePersistenceofSpectacleinPRCModesofPunishing CriminalityandDeviance 107 PhilipF.Williams 6 TheCocoonsofLanguage:Torture,Voice,Event 117 R.ShareahTaleghani 7 APrimerforthePoliticsandLiteratureofResistance: ApparitionalSubjectivityinTheCollectiveAutobiographyof theNewYork21 139 RamseyScott 8 RememberingPaininUruguay:WhatMemoriesMeaninCarlos Liscano’sTruckofFools 163 EugenioDiStefano v vi Contents 9 DeviatingfromtheNorm?:TwoEastsTestifytoaPrison AestheticsofHappiness 185 SimonaLivescu Appendix:CupPoems 207 Index 209 AbouttheContributors 215 Preface Yenna Wu This interdisciplinary volume of essays studies human rights in political prison literature, while probing the intersections of suffering, politics, and aesthetics in an interliterary and intercultural context. As the first book to exploretheconceptofglobalaestheticsinpoliticalprisonnarratives,itdem- onstrates how literary insight enhances the study of human rights. Covering variedgeographicalandgeopoliticalregions,thiscollectionencouragescom- parative analyses and cross-cultural understanding. Seeking to interrogate linguistic,structural,andculturalconstructionsofthepoliticalprisonexperi- ence,ithighlightstheliteraryaspectswithoutlosingsightofthepoliticaland thetheoretical. Thecontributorscrossvariousdisciplinaryboundariesandadoptdifferent interpretive perspectives in analyzing prison narratives, especially memoirs, fromsuchdiversecountriesasChina,Egypt,Morocco,Syria,Romania,Rus- sia, Uruguay, and the United States. The volume emphasizes the literary works produced since the second half of the twentieth century, particularly since the political seismic shift in 1989. The authors treated range from the canonical to the less well known: Nawal El Saadawi, Varlam Shalamov, ZhangXianliang,CongWeixi,Wumingshi,CarlosLiscano,FatnaElBouih, NabilSulayman,FarajBayraqdar,Hasiba'Abdalrahman,TaharBenJelloun, NicolaeSteinhardt,IrinaRatushinskaya,etc. Criticalissuesinvestigatedincludehowthewritersrepresenttheirsuffer- ings, experiences, and emotions during incarceration; their strategies of sur- vival; and how political prison literature can reveal hidden violations of humanrights,whileresistingofficialdiscourseandservingotherfunctionsin society. Examining the commonalities and differences in global experiences ofimprisonment,theeightchaptersengagewiththeaestheticsofself-making vii viii Preface and resistance, individual and collective memory, denial and conversion, catharsisandredemption,andtheexperiencingandwitnessingoftrauma. Topicsalsoincludethepoliticsofrememberingandthepoliticsofrepre- sentation, such as the problematic relationship between narrative, language, and representations of torture. Similarly under discussionare prison aesthet- ics of happiness, the role of spectaclein the criminal justice system,and the intersectionofprison,gender,andsilences. Atajuncturewhenmoreandmorepeopleallovertheworldactivelydefy repressive regimes and demand political reform, this book makes a timely contributiontotheadvocacyanddiscourseofuniversalhumanrights. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Enormous thanks are due to all the contributors fortheir wonderfulchapters and conscientious cooperation. I am particularly grateful to Simona Livescu for her enthusiastic participation and various help throughout the process. We owe special thanks to Simone Weil Davis, who expertly did the initial editingofchapters3,7,and9in2008.WearealsoappreciativeofAlexander Elinson’s participation and cooperation during the editing process, even though we regret not being able to include his chapter in the end due to copyright issues. I am extremely grateful for financial assistance from the AcademicSenateoftheUniversityofCalifornia,Riverside. WeareindebtedtoFlaggMillerandHollyCarverforgrantinguspermis- siontoreprinttwopoemsfromMarcFalkoff,ed.,PoemsfromGuantánamo: The Detainees Speak (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2007), p. 35. Susan Slyomovics’ chapter originally appeared in Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 1:3 (Fall 2005): 73–95. We thank Prof. Slyomovics and Kathryn Caras (Indiana University Press) for granting the permission to in- cludethisarticleinthisvolume. I am gratefulto Simona fortyping out Slyomovics’ chapter based on the article,andforhergreathelpontheindex.Ialsothanksomecolleaguesand an outside reader for their advice on the manuscript. Each contributor is responsible for the content of his or her chapter. Being in charge of most of theediting,Iamresponsibleforanyerrorsthatremain. Finally, Simona and I would like to express our gratitude to our families and friends for their support. We dedicate this volume to those upright and innocentindividualswhohavesufferedin,orarestillincarceratedin,politi- calprisonsworldwide. Chapter One Introduction Yenna Wu This volume examines political prison narratives, a distinct literary genre which has gradually emerged in recent decades. What engages our attention are the works produced since the second half of the twentieth century,espe- cially since the political seismic shift in 1989. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we are on the cusp of a new era in the study of prison literature. New public spaces and discourses are opened through the hard- won freedom resulting from the end of tyranny in a number of countries (such as the collapse of the former Communist governments of Eastern Eu- ropeortheendofapartheidinSouthAfricain1994),andinsomecasesalso duetorecentaccesstothefilesandarchivespreviouslykeptbysecretpolice aswellastheestablishmentoftruthandreconciliationcommissions.Agreat deal of political prison literature has been published, particularly in Eastern EuropeandtheMiddleEast. Theliteraryworksunderstudywerewrittenaboutandmostlybypolitical prisoners,acategorywhichinitsbroadestdefinitionwouldincludenotonly those incarcerated due to their active or passive involvement in political activitiesbutalsoprisonersofconscienceassociatedwithnon-politicalactiv- ities such as religious practices. Many of those who advocate human rights and challenge their governments to institute political reforms or democracy are non-violent. Yet they are detained merely because of being suspected as anti-regime or harmful to the state. Indeed, under a dictatorship, political dissidentscanbeeasily“disappeared,”framed,detained,tortured,assassinat- ed, or executed without any trial. Examples of extreme human rights abuse do not occur only in largely lawless countriesor regions. In some countries, even if constitutions and laws theoretically exist, they are frequently by- passed and flaunted in reality and practice. Furthermore, an authoritarian regime that is also manipulative and hypocritical would justify its brutality 1
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