City Research Online

Abstract

This article explores Yolande Mukagasana and Semezdin Mehmedinović’s highly aestheticised testimonial writing about the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and the Bosnian War. My analysis of Mukagasana’s Not My Time to Die and Mehmedinović’s Sarajevo Blues opens up a rich comparison that demonstrates the problematic nature of a social expectation and assumption that a survivor is active and strong in contrast to a passive and helpless victim. To unpack complexity of these categorisations, this article asks two questions: How do these two testimonies portray those who outlived violence and died as a result of it? What do these narratives tell us about the labels of a victim and survivor? After discussing the meaning of a victim and survivor in scholarship and local contexts, I will trace ways in which Mukagasana and Mehmedinović’s writing balances expressions of agency and recognition of the uncontrollable. The discussion will also examine actions that may appear less valuable or less visible than others and the implications of depiction of victims as active agents. The comparative analysis of the two literary texts complicates the categories of a victim and survivor, challenging the distance between the reader and those who outlived genocide or war.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Publisher Keywords:	Testimony, victim, survivor, witness, Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs > International Politics
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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