Witnessing Extremity in Violent Narratives in Literature and Humanitarian Discourse

Abstract

Beginning with Heidegger´s definition of violence as that which exceeds and reformulates normality, this essay questions how violence can be ethically represented and interpreted. In their ability to establish norms and then carry us beyond the bounds of the familiar, novels are uniquely suited to represent violence as norm-shattering. Contrasting tendencies in contemporary novels representing historical political violence with humanitarian writing, the essay uses the figure of the reader as witness to contrast the ways readers´ responsibility is constructed. I argue that many new works of historical fiction construct an imagined global readership whose non-violent normativity is meant to ground the novel and establish a contrast with extremes of political violence, discussing Chimamanda Adichie´s Half of a Yellow Sun as an example. <p>

<p>In Humanitarian Reason: A Moral History of the Present, Didier Fassin argues that we have entered a new era of humanitarian action, the era of the witness. Telling the story of suffering has become part of the humanitarian act itself. For the sake of highlighting the extremity of suffering, humanitarian organizations often publicize the most shocking experiences – the most violent, most pointless acts and the most vulnerable victims – but stripped of a context that could establish peace and compassion as norms against which this violence is contrasted, extreme portrayals of violence may normalize what they strive to condemn.