Panel presentation at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference
In this paper, Brigitte Herremans examines the relationship between Syrian literary writing and truth-seeking. Based on empirical research conducted with Syrian writers in the diaspora, I first argue that a wide variety of these authors share the aspiration with justice actors to counter forcible forgetting. Secondly, taking the novel Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek as a departing point, I examine the potential of fiction to ‘speak about the unspeakable’ and to present the reader with the complexity of truth claims. To conclude, I posit that Syrian literary texts addressing injustices can be considered as truth practices part of the ecosystemic framework of transitional justice initiatives, as they open spaces for truth-seeking that complement other understandings of truth – largely tethered to forensic truth – in the Syrian context.
Section: The Art of Justice: Roles, Performance and Audience in Human Rights and Transitional Justice
