Recalling violence: symbolic reparations and transformative gender justice in Peru

• In Event: Perspectivas simbólicas, estéticas y etnográficas de género en el Perú posconflicto. Una mirada a la justicia, la reparación y las políticas de memoria.

Abstract

Symbolic reparation, or public memory work, is increasingly seen as an essential part of post-conflict reparation, both by global institutions such as the UN as well as by local and global Transitional Justice advocates. Artists, writers, and curators represent, critique or deconstruct elements of a violent past that are often contested, thereby contributing to debates about the nature of reparation and representation. This paper explores the tension between top-down and bottom-up initiatives and between different narratives of the past. In particular, I explore victimhood, agency, and representation across lines of class, race, and gender and look at how gendered aspects of violence are recalled in artistic representations of the past, and if and how such representations may provide any form of redress, reparation, or consolation for victim-survivors of war.

Author

• Jelke Boesten, King's College London