Narrating Historical Injustice: Political Responsibility and the Politics of Memory

Abstract

Memory and justice are intricately linked. To adequately address historical wrongs, liberal democracies must engage the past. Historical memory provides a connective tissue between past wrongs and present injustices. Yet the question that arises with the politics of memory and its usefulness for addressing historical injustice resides precisely in the process by which we create historical memory. More than just an acknowledgment of past events, collective memory is constructed through narrative and memorial practices that impart meaning to past events. This paper amends the politics of memory by attending to the complex relationship between the narrative figuration of historical wrongs and present attributions of collective responsibility. By viewing memory of historical wrongs as narrative constructions of the past, we argue that the narrative form of historical injustice shapes contemporary notions of political responsibility. In elaborating this claim, we examine how different narrative representations of historical injustice engender different understandings of collective responsibility. Through a reading of the Native American political theorist Vine Deloria Jr.’s famous work, Custer Died for Your Sins, we then explore how irony and satire help expose the limitations of tragic, romantic, and comedic narratives in conceptualizing political responsibility for historical injustice.