Beyond the Language of Truth: Testimony and Exile after Survival

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Nora Strejilevich
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 4:15pm
Maginnes 102
Nora Strejilevich, an ex-detainee-disappeared who survived the atrocities of the "Dirty War" in her country Argentina (1976-83), will talk about the act of giving testimony. Testimony after genocide voices the intimate, subjective, deep dimension of horror. Having witnessed the abyss of atrocity, survivors can no longer rely on knowledge or facts as the basis for thinking. It is mostly in the realm of literature where recounting becomes an elaboration of language so that it can invoke the true nature of the “event.” This talk addresses the role of testimony as a means for working through traumatic memories and for social and cultural resistance - a must for the ethical recovery of a community after the experience of utmost exclusion. 
 
 
Sponsored by the Latin American Studies Program, Berman Center, Humanities Center, Office of the Chaplain, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Global Citizenship, Women’s Studies. This event is part of the “Diaspora: Re-imagining Cultural Space” Project.