05461nam 22007935 450 991080804370332120240418020959.01-283-21201-397866132120160-8122-0327-510.9783/9780812203271(CKB)2550000000051154(OCoLC)759158148(CaPaEBR)ebrary10491851(SSID)ssj0000649687(PQKBManifestationID)11363828(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000649687(PQKBWorkID)10608490(PQKB)11125155(DE-B1597)449169(OCoLC)979577998(DE-B1597)9780812203271(MiAaPQ)EBC3441394(EXLCZ)99255000000005115420190708d2010 fg engur|||---|||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierShattered Voices Language, Violence, and the Work of Truth Commissions /Teresa Godwin Phelps1st ed.Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2010]©20041 online resource (189 p.)Pennsylvania Studies in Human RightsBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph0-8122-1949-X Includes bibliographical references (pages 163-172) and index. Frontmatter -- Contents -- Prologue for Paulina -- Chapter One. The Demise of Paulina's Good: From Personal Revenge to State Punishment -- Chapter Two. The Demonizing of Revenge -- Chapter Three. Language, Violence, and Oppression -- Chapter Four. What Can Stories Do? -- Chapter Five. Telling Stories in a Search for Justice: The Argentinian, Chilean, and Salvadoran Truth Commissions -- Chapter Six. Telling Stories in a Search for More Than Justice: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission -- Chapter Seven. The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- AcknowledgmentsFollowing periods of mass atrocity and oppression, states are faced with a question of critical importance in the transition to democracy: how to offer redress to victims of the old regime without perpetuating cycles of revenge. Traditionally, balance has been restored through arrests, trials, and punishment, but in the last three decades, more than twenty countries have opted to have a truth commission investigate the crimes of the prior regime and publish a report about the investigation, often incorporating accounts from victims.Although many praise the work of truth commissions for empowering and healing through words rather than violence, some condemn the practice as a poor substitute for traditional justice, achieved through trials and punishment. There has been until now little analysis of the unarticulated claim that underlies the truth commissions' very existence: that language-in this case narrative stories-can substitute for violence. Acknowledging revenge as a real and deep human need, Shattered Voices explores the benefits and problems inherent when a fragile country seeks to heal its victims without risking its own future.In developing a theory about the role of language in retribution, Teresa Godwin Phelps takes an interdisciplinary approach, delving into sources from Greek tragedy to Hamlet, from Kant to contemporary theories about retribution, from the Babylonian law codes to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Report. She argues that, given the historical and psychological evidence about revenge, starting afresh by drawing a bright line between past crimes and a new government is both unrealistic and unwise.When grievous harm happens, a rebalancing is bound to occur, whether it is orderly and lawful or disorderly and unlawful. Shattered Voices contends that language is requisite to any adequate balancing, and that a solution is viable only if it provides an atmosphere in which storytelling and subsequent dialogue can flourish. In the developing culture of ubiquitous truth reports, Phelps argues that we must become attentive to the form these reports take-the narrative structure, the use of victims' stories, and the way a political message is conveyed to the citizens of the emerging democracy.By looking concretely at the work and responsibilities of truth commissions, Shattered Voices offers an important and thoughtful analysis of the efficacy of the ways human rights abuses are addressed.Pennsylvania Studies in Human RightsTruth commissionsHuman rightsReconciliationGovernmental investigationsPOLITICAL SCIENCEbisacGeneralbisacLaw, Politics & GovernmentHILCCHuman RightsHILCCHuman Rights.Law.Political Science.Truth commissions.Human rights.Reconciliation.Governmental investigations.POLITICAL SCIENCEGeneralLaw, Politics & GovernmentHuman Rights323.4/9Phelps Teresa Godwin, 1623399DE-B1597DE-B1597BOOK9910808043703321Shattered Voices3957781UNINA