The Routledge Companion to Literature and Human Rights

551 Pages·2016·4.38 MB·English

by  Sophia A. McClennen

THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO LITERATURE
AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The Routledge Companion to Literature and Human Rights provides a comprehensive,
transnational, and interdisciplinary map of this emerging field, offering a broad
overview of human rights and literature while providing innovative readings of key
topics.Thefirstofitskind,thisvolumecoversessentialissuesandthemes,necessarily
crossing disciplines between the social sciences and humanities. Parts cover:
(cid:1) subjects, with pieces on subjectivity, humanity, identity, gender, universality, the
particular, the body
(cid:1) forms, visiting the different ways human rights stories are crafted and formed via
the literary, the visual, the performative, and the oral
(cid:1) contexts, tracing the development of the literature over time and in relation to
specific regions and historical events
(cid:1) impacts,considering the power andlimitsofhuman rightsliterature,rhetoric,and
visual culture
Drawnfrommanydifferentglobalcontexts,theessaysofferanidealintroductionfor
thoseapproachingthestudyofliteratureandhumanrightsforthefirsttime,looking
for new insights and interdisciplinary perspectives, or interested in new directions
for future scholarship.
Contributors:ChrisAbani,JonathanE.Abel,ElizabethS.Anker,ArturoArias,Ariella
Azoulay, Ralph Bauer, Anna Bernard, Brenda Carr Vellino, Eleni Coundouriotis,
James Dawes,Erik Doxtader,MarcD.Falkoff,Keith P.Feldman,ElizabethSwanson
Goldberg, Audrey J. Golden, Mark Goodale, Barbara Harlow, Wendy S. Hesford,
Peter Hitchcock, David Holloway, Christine Hong, Madelaine Hron, Meg Jensen,
Luz Angélica Kirschner, Susan Maslan, Julie Avril Minich, Alexandra Schultheis
Moore,GregMullins,LauraT.Murphy,HannaMusiol,MakauMutua,ZoeNorridge,
David Palumbo-Liu, Crystal Parikh, Katrina M. Powell, Claudia Sadowski-Smith,
Mark Sanders, Karen-Margrethe Simonsen, Joseph R. Slaughter, Sharon Sliwinski,
Sidonie Smith, Domna C. Stanton, Sarah G. Waisvisz, Belinda Walzer, Ban Wang,
Julia Watson, Gillian Whitlock, and Sarah Winter.
SophiaA.McClennenisProfessorofInternationalAffairsandComparativeLiterature
(affiliated with Spanish and Women’s Studies) at Pennsylvania State University,
USA and Director of the Center for Global Studies.
AlexandraSchultheisMooreisAssociateProfessorofEnglishandProgramFacultyin
Women’sandGenderStudiesattheUniversityofNorthCarolinaatGreensboro,USA.
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THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION
TO LITERATURE AND HUMAN
RIGHTS
Edited by
Sophia A. McClennen and
Alexandra Schultheis Moore
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Firstpublished2016
byRoutledge
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TheRoutledgecompaniontoliteratureandhumanrights/editedby
SophiaA.McClennenandAlexandraSchultheisMoore.–Firstedition.
pagescm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Humanrightsinliterature.2.Socialjusticeinliterature.3.Lawandliterature.
4.Literatureandsociety.5.Literature–Historyandcriticism.I.McClennen,
SophiaA.,author,editor.II.Moore,AlexandraSchultheis,author,editor.III.Title:
Companiontoliteratureandhumanrights.IV.Title:Literatureandhumanrights.
PN56.H79R682015
809’.933581–dc23
2015002438
ISBN:978-0-415-73641-1(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-77837-2(ebk)
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CONTENTS
List of Figures xii
List of Contributors xiv
Acknowledgments xx
Introduction: Aporia and Affirmative Critique: Mapping the
Landscape of Literary Approaches to Human Rights Research 1
SOPHIA A. MCCLENNEN AND ALEXANDRA SCHULTHEIS
MOORE
PART I 21
Subjects
1 A New Universal for Human Rights?: The Particular,
the Generalizable, the Political 27
DOMNA C. STANTON
2 “Commonly Human”: Embodied Self-Possession and Human
Rights in Jamaica Kincaid’s The Autobiography of My Mother 37
ELIZABETH S. ANKER
3 Who Is Human?: Disability, Literature, and Human Rights 46
JULIE AVRIL MINICH
4 Queer Rights? 53
GREG A. MULLINS
5 Gendering Human Rights and Their Violation: A Reading of Chris
Cleave’s Little Bee 60
ELIZABETH SWANSON GOLDBERG
6 Contingent Vulnerabilities: Child Soldiers as Human Rights Subjects 69
WENDY S. HESFORD
vii
CONTENTS
7 In Flight: The Refugee Experience and Human Rights Narrative 78
ELENI COUNDOURIOTIS
8 Immolation 86
PETER HITCHCOCK
9 Remembering Perpetrators: The Kunstlerroman and Second-Generation
Witnessing in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker 94
SARAH G. WAISVISZ
PART II 103
Forms
10 Vanishing Points: When Narrative Is Not Simply There 109
JOSEPH R. SLAUGHTER
11 The Reemergence of the Slave Narrative Tradition and the Search
for a New Frederick Douglass 126
LAURA T. MURPHY
12 Reading Human Rights Literatures through Oral Traditions 136
KATRINA M. POWELL
13 Beyond the Trauma Aesthetic: The Cultural Work of Human Rights
Witness Poetries 148
BRENDA CARR VELLINO
14 Ending World War II: Visual Literacy Class in Human Rights 159
ARIELLA AZOULAY
15 Inventing Human Dignity 173
SHARON SLIWINSKI
16 The Legible Face of Human Rights in Autobiographically
Based Fiction 184
MEG JENSEN
17 The World-Form of Human Rights Comics 193
CHRISTINE HONG
18 Sorry Business 206
GILLIAN WHITLOCK
19 From “Tutsi Crush” to “FWP”: Satire, Sentiment, and Rights in
African Texts and Contexts 215
MADELAINE HRON
viii
CONTENTS
20 #NotABugSplat: Becoming Human on the Terrain of Visual Culture 224
KEITH P. FELDMAN
21 FragmentedFormsandShiftingContexts:How CanSocialMedia Work
for Human Rights? 233
DAVID PALUMBO-LIU
22 What about False Witnessing?: The Limits of Authenticity and
Verification 243
SIDONIE SMITH AND JULIA WATSON
PART III 253
Contexts
23 Nature and Society in Revolutionary Rights Debates 260
SUSAN MASLAN
24 The “Rites of Discovery”: Law and Narrative in the Sixteenth-Century
Atlantic World 268
RALPH BAUER
25 Natural Rights and Power in the Spanish Comedia after the Conquest 279
KAREN-MARGRETHE SIMONSEN
26 Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL): An Essay in
Bibliography 289
BARBARA HARLOW
27 Localizing Human Rights: Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India and the
Lacuna in International Justice 299
AUDREY J. GOLDEN
28 Colonialism, Inherited Rights, and Social Movements of
Self-Protection 309
BAN WANG
29 Transition and Transformation: Human Rights and Ubuntu in
Antjie Krog’s Writings after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 318
MARK SANDERS
30 Violence, Indigeneities and Human Rights 326
ARTURO ARIAS
31 Human Rights and Cultural Representations of Mexico-US Border
Migration 333
CLAUDIA SADOWSKI-SMITH
ix