scholarly journals The ‘other’ side of history as depicted in Isabel Allende’s Of Love and Shadows

Literator ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
M. Wenzel
Keyword(s):  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The Other ◽  
Isabel Allende ◽  
Testimonial Literature ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
And Gender

The proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa have once again foregrounded the trauma involved in reconstructing a past fraught with political and personal violence and have, at the same time, also illustrated the therapeutic quality of testimony. Literature has always played a vital role in the process of coming to terms with reality. As a woman within a postcolonial context, Isabel Allende bears witness to political oppression and gender discrimination in her novels. They serve as examples of testimonial literature which focus on the plight of women as marginalized citizens and represent a collective conscience in testimony to the atrocities of the past. This is accomplished through the interaction of her fictional characters with a recognizable historical context. In Of Love and Shadows, her female protagonist, Irene, asserts her individuality through writing/reporting which questions the validity of the male-oriented and so-called “objective” historical reportage. By creating disparate and complementary perspectives which accentuate the female/personal as well as the male/public aspects of experience, Allende proposes a recognition of the personal and the peripheral in the documentation of historical events; she underlines the validity of the “other” side of experience and history.

scholarly journals Anagnorisis (processing forgiveness): The mystical praxis-space of diaconal reaching out to the Other/others (the hopeful case of Joseph and his brothers)

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniël J. Louw
Keyword(s):  
Life Story ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The Other ◽  
Missio Dei ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Core ◽  
Mode Of Life

The following question is at stake: What entails forgiveness and reconciliation within processes of healing regarding schisms in a very diverse and polarised society? Despite the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission the burning question that still prevails: What is meant by a praxis of forgiveness and a spirituality of reconciliation within a post-apartheid dispensation? It is argued that forgiving and reconciling are not instant or merely ‘handsome pardoning’. Both are embedded in processes of reaching out to the pain and hurt of the other. As a process, forgiveness starts with self-acknowledgement and should manifest in modes of compassionate being-with and diaconal acts of reaching out, creating spaces of ‘mystical encounters’. In this regard, the notion of anagnorisis, as captured by narrating the encounter between Joseph and his brothers, should be read as an exemplification of reconciliation, directed by the missio Dei, promissio Dei and passio Dei. Within a Christian paradigm, Ernst Bloch’s notion of docta spes, very aptly captures the core of pastoral, reconciliatory care: Hope care to the human soul (nēphēsh) – the search for life and meaning. ‘Dum spiro – spero’ [While I Breathe, I Hope].Contribution: It is often the case that reconciliation is viewed as an instant event. The case of Joseph and his brothers illustrates the fact that reconciliation is in fact a mode of life, embedded over many years. In this way, reconciliation could be rendered as part of one’s life story; as a mode of journeying through life, exemplifying the how of authentic human encounters. Reconciliation then becomes an ontic feature of relational integrity and indication of the quality of the human soul: Habitus as feeling from the hurt being of the other.

scholarly journals Het Suggereren van Verzoening Tijdens de Hoorzittingen van de Waarheids- en Verzoeningscommissie

Afrika Focus ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 73-94
Author(s):  
Annelies Verdoolaege
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The Other ◽  
The South ◽  
Specific Kind ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
African Context ◽  
The One

Suggesting reconciliation at the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) took place under unique circumstances and in a very particular historical context. This article will explore how such a specific kind of reality gave rise to a specific kind of discourse, a so-called ‘reconciliation discourse’. On the one hand, this discourse offered the apartheid victims a lot of opportunities regarding linguistic expression. On the other hand, though, this discourse was also regimented and limited to a certain extent. By means of fragments from the TRC victim testimonies, this article will deal with one aspect of this linguistic manipulation, namely the introduction of the concept of reconciliation. In the first part of the article, I will explain which linguistic methods were used during the TRC hearings in order to emphasize the notion of reconciliation in the narratives of the testifying victims. In doing so, a lot of attention will be paid to the concrete interaction between the testifiers and the TRC commissioners. In a second part, I will try to investigate why the construction of this specific reconciliation discourse was necessary in the South African context. We will see that, amongst others, also political considerations played a role in the control exercised over the discourse of the TRC victims. In this way, we will understand that the reconciliation discourse of the Commission was a reflection of a very ambiguous social attitude: this discourse had to reveal as much as possible about the apartheid past – and this in a manner as spontaneous, as transparent and as open as possible -, but it also had to be adapted to certain socio-political needs. This will tell us that also a quasi-judicial institution such as the TRC involves an inevitable interplay between language on the one hand and ideology and society on the other.

Травелоги югославских писательниц первой половины ХХ века: в поисках идентичности

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-36
Author(s):  
А. Г. БОДРОВА
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Egyptian Women ◽  
Dialogical Philosophy ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Women's Travel ◽  
Gender Boundaries

The paper considers travelogues of Yugoslav female writers Alma Karlin, Jelena Dimitrijević, Isidora Sekulić, Marica Gregorič Stepančič, Marica Strnad, Luiza Pesjak. These texts created in the first half of the 20th century in Serbian, Slovenian and German are on the periphery of the literary field and, with rare exceptions, do not belong to the canon. The most famous of these authors are Sekulić from Serbia and the German-speaking writer Karlin from Slovenia. Recently, the work of Dimitrijević has also become an object of attention of researchers. Other travelogues writers are almost forgotten. Identity problems, especially national ones, are a constant component of the travelogue genre. During a journey, the author directs his attention to “other / alien” peoples and cultures that can be called foreign to the perceiving consciousness. However, when one perceives the “other”, one inevitably turns to one's “own”, one's own identity. The concept of “own - other / alien”, on which the dialogical philosophy is based (M. Buber, G. Marcel, M. Bakhtin, E. Levinas), implies an understanding of the cultural “own” against the background of the “alien” and at the same time culturally “alien” on the background of “own”. Women's travel has a special status in culture. Even in the first half of the 20th century the woman was given space at home. Going on a journey, especially unaccompanied, was at least unusual for a woman. According to Simone de Beauvoir, a woman in society is “different / other”. Therefore, women's travelogues can be defined as the look of the “other” on the “other / alien”. In this paper, particular attention is paid to the interrelationship of gender, national identities and their conditioning with a cultural and historical context. At the beginning of the 20th century in the Balkans, national identity continues actively to develop and the process of women's emancipation is intensifying. Therefore, the combination of gender and national issues for Yugoslavian female travelogues of this period is especially relevant. Dimitrijević's travelogue Seven Seas and Three Oceans demonstrates this relationship most vividly: “We Serbian women are no less patriotic than Egyptian women... Haven't Serbian women most of the merit that the big Yugoslavia originated from small Serbia?” As a result of this study, the specificity of the national and gender identity constructs in the first half of the 20th century in the analyzed texts is revealed. For this period one can note, on the one hand, the preservation of national and gender boundaries, often supported by stereotypes, on the other hand, there are obvious tendencies towards the erosion of the established gender and national constructs, the mobility of models of gender and national identification as well, largely due to the sociohistorical processes of the time.

Policy and law for addressing poverty, race and gender in the water sector: the case of South Africa

Water Policy ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 489-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Schreiner ◽  
Barbara van Koppen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Integrated Water Resources Management ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Equity Issues ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Poor Women ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Key Aspects

The aims of the new water policies and laws of post-apartheid South Africa are to contribute to the eradication of the country's widespread poverty and to redress historical race and gender discrimination with regard to water. After placing these policy and legal changes in a historical context, the paper discusses their operationalization and impact during the first years of implementation. Three key aspects are highlighted. The first aspect concerns internal changes within the implementing government department, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF). The second aspect regards water services and sanitation directly targeted at poor women and men. Lastly, the paper discusses the emerging equity issues in public participation processes, as an illustration of the new approach to integrated water resources management.

Traces of the Other: Adorno on Natural Beauty

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-189
Author(s):  
André Krebber
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
The Other ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Environmental Aesthetics ◽  
Natural Beauty ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article explores Theodor W. Adorno’s recovery of natural beauty in Aesthetic Theory against the background of current debates in environmental aesthetics and evinces the relationship of his reading of natural beauty to his critique of the domination of nature. From there, a critique of natural domination can be issued through the artwork. Whereas Adorno specifies that artworks do not relate to natural beauty in a positive, pseudomorphotic sense, they nevertheless inherit a quality of natural beauty as presenting to humans what is not reducible to the human. Within the specific historical context of an environmental crisis, then, a case is finally made for art as an area of ecological critique that recovers the artwork and nature from both the artwork’s reduction to a propagandistic tool and its idealistic enlisting for reinstating a bourgeois ideal of nature.

scholarly journals Islam, HAM, dan Diskriminasi: Reinterpretasi Hadis-Hadis Kepemimpinan secara Kontekstual

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Muhammad Syachrofi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
Contextual Approach ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Racial Ethnic ◽  
Islamic View

This paper discusses one of the humanitarian problems that still often occurs today, discrimination. Discrimination is not only contrary to human rights but also contrary to the Islamic view which is raḥmah fī al-‘ālamīn. But, in fact, Islam is always suspected as a religion that teaches various forms of discriminatory treatment. The accusation is based on Islamic religious texts which narratively teach discrimination. I find that there are two hadiths that are discriminatory about electing leaders. The first hadith is about having to elect a leader from the Quraysh clan. The second hadith is about the prohibition for women to be a leader. Textually, these hadiths are quite problematic because they contain the narration of racial-ethnic discrimination and gender discrimination. Therefore, in this article, I attempt to reinterpret these hadiths by using a contextual approach by analyzing the language and socio-historical context. My conclusion is that these hadiths were stated by the Prophet Muhammad in temporary cases. Substantially, these hadiths contain the significances that are relevant today.

National Reconciliation through Public Hearings

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascha Bueno-Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The Public ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Public Hearings ◽  
New Space ◽  
And Gender ◽  
National Reconciliation ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter examines how the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (PTRC) turned from policy suggestions to the symbolic realm of public hearings as part of its efforts to construct and implement a new space of horizontal communication to facilitate the national reconciliation process. The PTRC public hearings aimed to build a new national narrative by giving voice to the victims/testimoniantes and educating the public on lesser-known aspects of the conflict utilizing a human rights framework. This chapter analyzes how procedural and representational issues hindered the full potential of the PTRC public hearings, including the selection of testimonies and the testimonies themselves that demonstrate the restricted qualities of both victimhood and motherhood. It also considers the politics of reception that characterizes the hearings and concludes by suggesting that careful attention to the workings of language, temporality, and gender representation could aid in overcoming the discrimination that impedes democracy and social harmony.

When the Landscape of the Face is Hidden from Us

2017 ◽  
pp. 68-71
Author(s):  
Paula Horta
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Affective Quality ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Ethical Response ◽  
Desmond Tutu

How do we respond to the vulnerability of the Other when we do not see his face? How do photographer and viewers position themselves ethically in relation to the (hi)story of suffering they are called to witness? These are the questions that steer my reflection about Jillian Edelstein’s unpublished photograph of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Taken shortly after the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) completed its work, the photograph evokes the moment during the TRC hearings when the Archbishop, Chairman of the commission, laid down his head and wept. Drawing on Emmanuel Levinas’s conceptualization of “the face”; I discuss how affect is produced within and through Edelstein’s photograph, and specifically how the affective quality of the photograph both contributes to an understanding of the experience of suffering within the context of the TRC and summons an ethical response from the viewer. Keywords: Desmund Tutu, Emmanuel Levinas, gesture and photography, Jillian Edelstein, photography portrait

scholarly journals The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and gender: The Testimony of Mrs Konile revisited

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandiswa L. Kobe
Keyword(s):  
Black Woman ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
African Women ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
And Gender

This article draws on a well-known narration of the Gugulethu Seven incident from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) proceedings with specific reference to testimonies of the mothers of the Gugulethu Seven. The article focuses on Mrs Konile’s testimony as a case study: Testimony of a black woman whose son was murdered by the apartheid government’s security forces. During the TRC hearings, Mrs Konile ‘failed’ to effectively narrate her story, which resulted in her testimony being dismissed as being incoherent. This article examines the underlying attributes of Mrs Konile’s testimony and revisits why she was considered ‘incapable’ of articulating her experience in a convincing manner. The analysis aims to acknowledge, identify and give insights about this woman’s testimony from an African women theologian viewpoint (specifically with references to the Isixhosa religious cultural background).

scholarly journals E-3 Feminism and Sufism

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-31
Author(s):  
Imran Ali Sandano ◽  
Pasand Ali Khoso ◽  
Zareen Khan Rind
Keyword(s):  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Human Security ◽  
The Other ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Educational Rights ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Status Of Women

The concept of feminism has been represented in different forms and criticized especially in the Muslim world. This study argues that Sufism encourages the concept of feminism in Islam and discourages the theological status of women. The Sufi trends for women are more supportive and relevant to the concept of feminism. In particular, this study looks at deific concept of feminism with Sufi preachings and practices; on the other hand it has also examined the western feminism under the shadow of human security concept. The main argument of feminist school of thought is to create equal social, political, economic, employment and educational rights for women. This argument reasserts that there is deep-rooted gender discrimination in all walks of life. Whereas, Sufism challenges Islamic fundamentalists and provides true recognition to the feminism as a quality of activity, authority, strength, greatness and power. Sufis believe that humans may find themselves in different types but eventually there is no female or male, only being. Sufism provides constructive pathways to safeguarding women in all means.

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