Human Rights and Narrated Lives : The Ethics of Recognition
Schaffer, Kay.
Human Rights and Narrated Lives : The Ethics of Recognition / Kay Schaffer and Sidonie Smith. - First edition. - London : Palgrave Macmillan , 2004. - xii, 288 p. ; 22 cm.
Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition by Kay Schaffer and Sidonie Smith explores the crucial role that personal narratives play in contemporary human rights movements. The authors argue that autobiographies, memoirs, testimonies, and other life stories have become powerful means of making human rights violations visible and fostering public recognition of marginalized individuals and communities. Rather than viewing human rights solely through legal or political frameworks, the book examines how storytelling shapes public understanding, empathy, and ethical responsibility. The book investigates how individual life narratives are produced, translated, circulated, and interpreted across different cultural and political settings. It considers the ethical questions involved in representing trauma, suffering, displacement, and violence, asking who has the authority to tell these stories, how audiences respond to them, and how international human rights discourse both enables and constrains personal expression. Drawing on examples from postcolonial societies, indigenous communities, refugee experiences, and women's rights movements, the authors demonstrate the complex relationship between narration, identity, memory, and recognition.
9781137582461
Autobiography.
Human rights.
Life writing.
Narration (Rhetoric).
327.73 SCH
Human Rights and Narrated Lives : The Ethics of Recognition / Kay Schaffer and Sidonie Smith. - First edition. - London : Palgrave Macmillan , 2004. - xii, 288 p. ; 22 cm.
Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition by Kay Schaffer and Sidonie Smith explores the crucial role that personal narratives play in contemporary human rights movements. The authors argue that autobiographies, memoirs, testimonies, and other life stories have become powerful means of making human rights violations visible and fostering public recognition of marginalized individuals and communities. Rather than viewing human rights solely through legal or political frameworks, the book examines how storytelling shapes public understanding, empathy, and ethical responsibility. The book investigates how individual life narratives are produced, translated, circulated, and interpreted across different cultural and political settings. It considers the ethical questions involved in representing trauma, suffering, displacement, and violence, asking who has the authority to tell these stories, how audiences respond to them, and how international human rights discourse both enables and constrains personal expression. Drawing on examples from postcolonial societies, indigenous communities, refugee experiences, and women's rights movements, the authors demonstrate the complex relationship between narration, identity, memory, and recognition.
9781137582461
Autobiography.
Human rights.
Life writing.
Narration (Rhetoric).
327.73 SCH
