Figures of witnesses: literary and fictional Mediations of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda

• Published in: Contemporary French and francophone studies 2016-03, Vol.20 (2), p.227-232
• Main Author: Brinker, Virginie
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; fre
• Subjects: Humanities and Social Sciences; Literature
• ISSN: 1740-9292; 1740-9306
• DOI: 10.1080/17409292.2016.1144850

In what way can the special position of witnesses from outside and witnesses of the aftermath that characterizes many writers who, in the space of twenty years, have devoted works to transmit the memory of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda help redefine the notion of testimony, and above all, on what terms? To the extent that a media memory of the event (essentially in the form of images broadcast in the mass media in 1994) predates the work of writers, the idea is to question, from an ethical and aesthetic point of view, the potential of literary fiction to construct and transmit the memory of this event today. While updating some elements of a poethics [une poethique] of mediation, this paper also seeks to measure how, beyond the use of a style that can be described as iconic, certain literary works can attempt a true passing on of memory capable of crossing timeand boundaries between author and reader, others and myself, visible and invisible, conscious and unconscious, giving a new dimension to the issue of testimony.