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The Politics of Justice and the French Blood Affair in Hélène Cixous's The Perjured City

The Politics of Justice and the French Blood Affair in Hélène Cixous's The Perjured City <jats:p> In the article, I examine Hélène Cixous's play La Ville parjure ou le Réveil des Erinyes (The Perjured City) as a political contribution to the debate over memory and justice. The focus is on the question of how the telling of a story of atrocities may be therapeutic to both the victim and to society. I stress Cixous's alternative way of addressing justice: through forgiveness instead of criminal prosecution or other forms of retribution or reconciliation. Referring to Jacques Derrida's work, the main argument revolves around the question of whether forgiveness for unspeakable crimes should be unconditional or conditional. Instead of seeing Cixous's play as an unequivocal stance on restorative justice in general, and on conditional forgiveness in particular, I stress that the main protagonist, the Mother, is not willing to forgive the crime itself because of its unforgivable nature. </jats:p> http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Paragraph Edinburgh University Press

The Politics of Justice and the French Blood Affair in Hélène Cixous's The Perjured City

Erlingsdóttir, Irma
Paragraph , Volume 38 (3): 369 – Nov 1, 2015
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References (14)

Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© Edinburgh University Press 2015
Subject
Literary Studies
ISSN
0264-8334
eISSN
1750-0176
DOI
10.3366/para.2015.0173
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

<jats:p> In the article, I examine Hélène Cixous's play La Ville parjure ou le Réveil des Erinyes (The Perjured City) as a political contribution to the debate over memory and justice. The focus is on the question of how the telling of a story of atrocities may be therapeutic to both the victim and to society. I stress Cixous's alternative way of addressing justice: through forgiveness instead of criminal prosecution or other forms of retribution or reconciliation. Referring to Jacques Derrida's work, the main argument revolves around the question of whether forgiveness for unspeakable crimes should be unconditional or conditional. Instead of seeing Cixous's play as an unequivocal stance on restorative justice in general, and on conditional forgiveness in particular, I stress that the main protagonist, the Mother, is not willing to forgive the crime itself because of its unforgivable nature. </jats:p>

Journal

Paragraph – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Nov 1, 2015

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