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

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.