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Resistance and testimony

Résistance et témoignage

Resistencia and testimonio

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Published on Friday, August 11, 2017

Abstract

We invite researchers to submit a paper for the next issue of the GenObs e-journal, which will focus on the possible links between resistance and testimony when they occur in contexts where Human rights are violated (genocide, crimes against humanity, mass crimes).

Announcement

Argument

The next issue of the e-Journal GenObs will focus on Testimony and Resistance, the links that these two activities can share, the modalities and the faces with which they manifest themselves and how they are perceived, being it at the time of their emergence, or after some time, even decades or centuries, through archives, for instance. How does memory and testimony come about when we ask the question of resistance or how does resistance manifest itself when it occurs within a testimonial framework (commemorations, trials, etc.)?

To recognize oneself as a victim and to be recognized as such, to seek justice, to claim that right, as well as compensations. to bring all possible means to put in place mechanisms that will allow to testify about the harm, the prejudice and damages suffered; transmit, through others’ voices, the annihilation to which one has escaped, all this has made it possible to highlight a hard core, that of resistance to evildoers, annihilation, silence, and oblivion.

Resistance, as a major component of our history (private or collective), must be approached, not as an epiphenomenon devoid of contemporary social reality, but as the understanding of this History and its resulting impact even nowadays.

These two themes, testimony and resistance, will be studied in a multidisciplinary framework, since they include dimensions that relate to linguistics as well as semantics, literary studies, history, conflict management studies, law, psychoanalysis, philosophy, social sciences, Humanities in general. The next issue of GenObs seeks to question Resistance and the actors who embody it, being it individuals or more organised groups, to better target the “resistant fact” and its “speech acts”.

Analysis will be based on past and present resistance experiences and will examine the status and patterns of resistance in contemporary cultural, social, legal and political contexts. Whether it is from a theoretical perspective (through the analysis of discursive structures and their components) or from a more pragmatic point of view (through gestures), one should reflect on what can be considered an act of resistance. It will also be recommended to analyse the values (ethical, moral, political or other) attached to it, to better understand the conditions of possibility of an act of resistance (discursive or pragmatic) so that it will actually be perceived as such.

We invite authors to reflect on whether all forms of resistance are legitimate which, of course, questions the object and purpose of resistance – what to resist what and why (being it the objectives guiding resistance or the meaning an individual or a group attach to the way they undertake resistance)? Therefore, one could question if resistance necessarily leads to making a moral judgement on the actions taken and/or the individuals who took that responsibility.

If Resistance becomes visible, concrete, or happens through conducts that testify of its existence and the reality attached to it, then, testimony, in its multiple forms – scientific, literary, cinematic, biographical, legal, memorial … – and modalities – discursive, graphic, physical … – appears as a corollary of resistance: it constitutes the mediation without which Resistance could never become a force, a vector of action (grounded on ethics, moral beliefs or political affiliations), nor, of course, an object of study. The reference to testimony thus refers both to testimony as an act of resistance, to the testimony of Resistance, and even to resistance to testimony when everything is done to prevent testimony from occurring.

Publication

The publication is scheduled for the summer of 2018.

Submission guidelines

Deadline for submission of abstrats (between 3000 and 4000 characters) : 31/03/2018

Deadline for selected articles : 31/05/2018

Papers may be submitted in English, French or Spanish.

For more information on the submissions process, we invite all authors to visit the journal’s web page at: http://ojs.trentu.ca/ojs/index.php/genobs/index


Date(s)

  • Saturday, March 31, 2018

Keywords

  • résistance, témoignage, mémoire, génocide, crime contre l'humanité, crime de masse

Contact(s)

  • Catalina Sagarra
    courriel : catalinasagarra [at] trentu [dot] ca

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Catalina Sagarra
    courriel : catalinasagarra [at] trentu [dot] ca

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Resistance and testimony », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Friday, August 11, 2017, https://doi.org/10.58079/y7k

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