Ethics of Witness in Global Testimonial Narratives: Responding to the Pain of Others

(Hardback)

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Inspired by Susan Sontags examination of the impact of photography of conscience in Regarding the Pain of Others, Kimberly A. Nances Responding to the Pain of Others: Ethics of Witness in Global Testimonial Narratives takes as its point of departure Sontags speculation that in combatting human rights abuse, a narrative seems likely to be more effective than an image. Building on her own earlier research on Aristotelian rhetorical theory and testimony, along with other interdisciplinary approaches, Nance analyzes the socio-literary narratives of Elvia Alvarado, Medea Benjamin, Peter Dickinson, Benjamin Alire Senz, Clea Koff, Delia Jarrett-Macauley, Valentino Achak Deng, Dave Eggers, Uwem Akpan, and Alicia Partnoy. Each of them, she finds, confronts a human rights discourse in which wordsand witnesseshave become disconnected from actions. Recognizing that the genres own conventions have become an obstacle to its projects, these testimonialists draw on humor, irony, satire, parody, and innovative literary techniques, alongside strategies rooted in real-life organizing, in an effort to reactivate the discourse of human rights. They seek to persuade readers to exchange a solidarity of sentiment, a state Michael Vander Weele calls an aesthetics in which the engine revs but the clutch is never engaged, for actual social action.

Reviews

In her latest book, Kimberly Nance continues to expand upon her deep knowledge of testimonios, marked by an essential shift to a transnational framework and offering an in-depth, thoughtful, and examined engagement of power-laden audience receptions to this political life writing form. Nance offers a particularly nuanced engagement with the deliberative strand of testimonio while refusing to offer romanticized account of the texts and fiercely insisting upon their radical potential.

--Patricia DeRocher, Champlain College

Presenting diverse testimonial texts from around the globe, Responding to the Pain ofOthers, attends to the expansive ethical dimensions of a proliferating genre. Kimberly Nance, building upon her ground-breaking study Can Literature Promote Justice, astutely reveals narrative and rhetorical strategies of persuasion in deliberative testimonios, works that seek engaged social action from reader-witnesses. From a wide range of divergent case studies--including traditional life stories, fictionalized works that incorporate magical realism and the fantastic, even YA novels--Nance identifies the convergence of compelling narratives, attractive to readers, that cajole and demand pragmatic responses. Clearly written and persuasively argued, Responding to the Pain ofOthers revitalizes testimonio studies by drawing attention to underlying processes intended to foster alliances with readers.

--Janis Be Breckenridge, Professor of Hispanic Studies, Whitman College

Author Bio

Kimberly A. Nance is professor of languages, literatures, and cultures at Illinois State University.