‘The means of life’: Civilizational witnessing in Write to Life’s Souvenirs

Author:

Stewart Sarah1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. ISNI: 0000 0004 1936 7988 University of Edinburgh

Abstract

Discourses underpinning UK policies such as Fundamental British Values and the Hostile Environment draw justification from framing asylum seekers as threats to western civilizational values and the British way of life. In this article, I examine Write to Life’s play Souvenirs as a remarkable example of ethically informed theatre with a conceptually refined understanding of the practicalities of civilization. Using Elaine Scarry’s theorization of the sheltering room as vital facilitator of civilization, the article explores how this testimonial play intervenes in mainstream discourses that work to hamper the two-way exchange that Kelly Oliver identifies as the foundational witnessing structure of subjectivity. I argue that this framework for interpretation highlights Souvenirs’s framing concepts of the garden and the souvenir scar as illustrating collective possibilities for co-creating civilization based on negotiation rather than enforced legibility.

Publisher

Intellect

Reference47 articles.

1. BBC One (2012), ‘BBC Inside Out (London): Freedom from Torture’, 27 March, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpkFpTWa-IQ. Accessed 10 March 2022.

2. Blair, T. (2006), ‘The duty to integrate: Shared British Values’, speech delivered at Runnymede Trust private event, London, 8 December, https://web.archive.org/web/20220122064544/http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/publications/pdfs/348BulletinDec06.pdf. Accessed 10 March 2022.

3. From voyeur to witness: Recapturing symbolic function after massive psychic trauma;Psychoanalytic Psychology,2005

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3