Bearing Witness: Poetry, Prison Discourse, and Communal Struggles in Human Rights Education

Abstract

This article examines two genres of the humanities literature—poetry of witness and prison memoirs—to articulate the distinctive or unique contributions that the humanities can make in understanding and possibly preventing human rights atrocities. Drawing upon the work of Carolyn Forché and the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, it argues that both genres are typically inspired by a liberatory and edifying view of literature in the way they shed moral light on social and historical tragedies, and in that respect they contribute to the goal of human rights education by making us better humans, heightening our awareness, increasing our sensibility, and thus indirectly guiding our actions toward the establishment of a better world. Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress truth.