Narrating Contested Lives: The Aesthetics of Life Writing in Human Rights Campaigns.

Abstract

This study builds upon the scholarship of Joseph R. Slaughter (Human Rights, Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law, 2007), Gillian Whitlock (Soft Weapons: Autobiography in Transit, 2007), and James Dawes (That the World May Know: Bearing Witness to Atrocity, 2007) to consider the complex relationship between violations of human rights and their representations. It should be noted that the editing and translation is weak throughout, and, sadly, there is no index. Katja Kurz explains in a lengthy introduction that her approach combines “the analysis of transnational American studies, (tas), life writing, and human rights” (p. 1). Her aim is to “trace the discursive routes” of “transnational life writing,” that crosses borders both literally and figuratively and thereby examine the journey between the rights violations experienced by the subjects of these narratives and their circulation as life-story products via human rights campaigns (p. 2). As Kurz rightly notes, such campaigns aim to enlist the empathy and gain the support (financial or otherwise) of their potential audiences. And while this exchange might certainly be worthy, it can never be value-neutral.