Vulnerability and Security in Human Rights Literature and Visual Culture (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature)

Human rights in precarious timesSpectrally human: African child soldier narratives at the limits of legal personhood -- Disturbing the archive: Human rights storytelling of Zimbabwe's Gukurahundi -- Overexposed: compounded vulnerability and continuing liability in fiction of Bhopal -- Re-purposing Témoignage: humanitarian spaces and subjects in photo/graphic narratives of Médecins sans frontières -- In the aftermath of mass murder: visuality and vertigo in the Indonesia films of Joshua Oppenheimer.;Human rights in precarious times -- Spectrally human: African child soldier narratives at the limits of legal personhood -- Disturbing the archive: Human rights storytelling of Zimbabwe's Gukurahundi -- Overexposed: compounded vulnerability and continuing liability in fiction of Bhopal -- Re-purposing Témoignage: humanitarian spaces and subjects in photo/graphic narratives of Médecins sans frontières -- In the aftermath of mass murder: visuality and vertigo in the Indonesia films of Joshua Oppenheimer This book responds to the failures of human rights—the way its institutions and norms reproduce geopolitical imbalances and social exclusions—through an analysis of how literary and visual culture can make visible human rights claims that are foreclosed in official discourses. Moore draws on theories of vulnerability, precarity, and dispossession to argue for the necessity of recognizing the embodied and material contexts of human rights subjects. At the same time, she demonstrates how these theories run the risk of reproducing the structural imbalances that lie at the core of critiques of human rights. Pairing conventional human rights genres—legal instruments, human rights reports, reportage, and humanitarian campaigns—with literary and visual culture, Moore develops a transnational feminist reading praxis of five sites of rights and their violation over the past fifty years: UN human rights instruments and child soldiers in Nigerian literature; human rights reporting and novels that address state-sponsored ethnocide in Zimbabwe; the international humanitarian campaigns and disaster capitalism in fiction of Bhopal, India; the work of Médecins Sans Frontières in the Sahel, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burma as represented in various media campaigns and in photo/graphic narratives; and, finally, the human rights campaigns, fiction, and film that have brought Indonesia's history of anti-leftist violence into contemporary public debate.These case studies underscore how human rights norms are always subject to conditions of imaginative representation, and how literature and visual culture participate in that cultural imaginary. Expanding feminist theories of embodied and imposed vulnerability, Moore demonstrates the importance of situating human rights violations not only in the context of neo-liberal development policies but also in relation to the growth of security networks that serve the nation-state often at the expense of the security of specific subjects and populations. In place of conventional victims and agents, the intersection of vulnerability and human rights opens up readings of human rights claims and suffering that are, at once, embodied and shareable, yet which run the risk of cooptation by security rhetoric. This book responds to the failures of human rightsthe way its institutions and norms reproduce geopolitical imbalances and social exclusionsthrough an analysis of how literary and visual culture can make visible human rights claims that are foreclosed in official discourses. Moore draws on theories of vulnerability, precarity, and dispossession to argue for the necessity of recognizing the embodied and material contexts of human rights subjects. At the same time, she demonstrates how these theories run the risk of reproducing the structural imbalances that lie at the core of critiques of human rights. Pairing conventional human rights genreslegal instruments, human rights reports, reportage, and humanitarian campaignswith literary and visual culture, Moore develops a transnational feminist reading praxis of five sites of rights and their violation over the past fifty UN human rights instruments and child soldiers in Nigerian literature; human rights reporting and novels that address state-sponsored ethnocide in Zimbabwe; the international humanitarian campaigns and disaster capitalism in fiction of Bhopal, India; the work of Mdecins Sans Frontires in the Sahel, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burma as represented in various media campaigns and in photo/graphic narratives; and, finally, the human rights campaigns, fiction, and film that have brought Indonesias history of anti-leftist violence into contemporary public debate. These case studies underscore how human rights norms are always subject to conditions of imaginative representation, and how literature and visual culture participate in that cultural imaginary. Expanding feminist theories of embodied and imposed vulnerability, Moore demonstrates the importance of situating human rights violations not only in the context of neo-liberal development policies but also in relation to the growth of security networks that serve the nation-state often at the expense of the security of specific subjects and populations. In place of conventional victims and agents, the intersection of vulnerability and human rights opens up readings of human rights claims and suffering that are, at once, embodied and shareable, yet which run the risk of cooptation by security rhetoric. Popular struggles in the global south suggest the need for the development of new and politically enabling categories of analysis, and new ways of understanding contemporary social movements. This book shows how social movements in Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East politicize development in an age of neoliberal hegemony. The popular classes of the global South are up in arms. From Soweto to Buenos Aires to Bhopal, social movements are making demands for social justice and human dignity against the multiple processes of dispossession that are the hallmark of neoliberalism. Through practices of resistance, these movements transform the direction and meaning of postcolonial development. Popular struggles in the global South suggest the need for the development of new and politically enabling categories of analysis as well as new ways of understanding contemporary social movements in the global South. This book brings together theoretically informed and empirically grounded contributions that interrogate the ways in which social movements in Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East politicize development in an age of neoliberal hegemony On December 2-3, 1984, India witnessed arguably the world s worst industrial disaster in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, which continues to this day as an economic, medical, environmental, and political disaster. Surviving Bhopal draws on oral testimonials of the affected community and analyzes the cause and aftermath of the disaster from the perspective of those who suffered the severe consequences of systemic failure and travesty of justice. The event resulted in a resistance movement, led by women, against corporate and state power. Mukherjee explores the underlying gender politics, showing how activism challenged and redefined the contemporary model of development. Human Rights In Precarious Times -- Spectrally Human: African Child Soldier Narratives At The Limits Of Legal Personhood -- Disturbing The Archive: Human Rights Storytelling Of Zimbabwe's Gukurahundi -- Overexposed: Compounded Vulnerability And Continuing Liability In Fiction Of Bhopal -- Re-purposing Témoignage: Humanitarian Spaces And Subjects In Photo/graphic Narratives Of Médecins Sans Frontières -- In The Aftermath Of Mass Murder: Visuality And Vertigo In The Indonesia Films Of Joshua Oppenheimer. Alexandra Schultheis Moore. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 240-254) And Index. This book responds to the failures of human rights through an analysis of how literary and visual culture can expose human rights claims that are foreclosed in official discourses. Drawing on vulnerability theory, Moore develops a transnational feminist praxis for reading human rights and their violations in contemporary literary and visual cult This book explores the nature of women's activism in the broader context of the economic and medical rehabilitation of the survivors of the horrific Bhopal Gas Tragedy.