FYI... Stefanie Rixecker ECOFEM Coordinator ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: "Nicole D. Matthews" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Testimonial Cultures and Feminist Agendas Lancaster University, May 20-21 Contact: Sara Ahmed ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) or Jackie Stacey. The desire to speak out and testify is everywhere about us; disenfranchised >subjects tell their stories at an unprecedented rate. Women in particular >have used testimonial forms to tell their stories in autobiographies and oral >histories, on tv chat shows, or through photography, film and performance. >Whether these testimonies are written, visual, oral or even bodily, and >whether they are given in private or public spaces, before known or unknown >audiences, accounts of the traumas of 'history' and the 'everyday,' the >'exceptional' and the 'commonplace' pervade contemporary culture. Thus we are >witness to the testimonial projects of survivors of rape, child sexual abuse, >cancer, AIDS, war, torture, racial abuse, hate crimes, ethnic cleansing, as >well as to historical traumas such as the Holocaust and slavery. And indeed >we can now even be witness to death through the serialisation and posthumous >testimonies of those facing its immediate certainty and realisation. > But how might we approach these instances of testimonial culture in the >light of feminist politics around the personal, the autobiographical and the >confessional? Do these testimonies represent a political success for feminism >and how do individual testimonial projects connect to the collective memorial >practices? Is it rather that these testimonies represent a success for the >radical individualism of right wing politics and the therapeutic industries of >Western capitalism? In other words, do these testimonies suggest a fatal >reduction of the feminist dictum 'the personal is political,' to a less than >transformative confessional logic of sentimentalism and consumption? > And how do certain testimonial projects work to exclude some subjects from >speaking and/or particular histories from being spoken? Do some testimonies >'appeal' more than other? Do the stories which are the most shocking, the >most graphic or the most exceptional stand a better chance of being heard in a >culture saturated by testimony? And finally do these questions about the >politics of testimony demand a critical reflection on the ethics of witnessing >trauma, where testimony is understood as a project of address that necessarily >demands an implicated and responsible listener. In short do 'we' yet know how >to hear the 'truths' of testimony? ************************************ Dr. Stefanie S. Rixecker Division of Environmental Management & Design Lincoln University, Canterbury PO Box 84 Aotearoa New Zealand E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax: 64-03-325-3841 ************************************
