Victim Narratives in Transnational Contexts

The figure of the victim seems to be unparalleled in its power to polarise contemporary societies. Based on this general observation, the volume Opfernarrative in transnationalen Kontexten [Victim Narratives in Transnational Contexts] explores ways and possibilities of critically interrogating victim statuses. The book builds on current scientific and social debates and deals with victim narratives in both literary and artistic texts that e merged after 1989. Its focus is on European literatures and cultures of the immediate present. The editors hypothesise that the discursively produced and judicially fixed victim status is highly desirable for individuals and groups because it accords moral superiority and guarantees legal rights and claims. Victims are considered to be essentially good and experience empathy and solidarity in public opinion. The desire for a victim status both at the collective and the individual level has been criticise d by, among others, Jean-Michel Chaumont, Peter Novick, Michael Rothberg, Esther Benbassa, and, most recently, the Italian literary scholar Daniele Giglioli. They argue that a monodirectional view of cultural memory centring on Holocaust victims is likely to reify counterproductive hierarchies of victims. Moreover, Giglioli contends that the ubiquitous victim cult defends victims against any form of criticism and makes them virtually unassailable. He maintains that victims are forever reduced to events in the past, which is why he understands the current victim cult as a backward-looking ideology that renders future-oriented actions and objectives unviable. The research questions raised in the book in relation to victim narratives focus on four key aspects: on (1) possibilities of representing the victim, on (2) articulation(s) of being a victim and the acquisition of agency, on (3) victim competition and the ambivalence between perpetrators and victims, and on (4) attempts to overcome the simplistic polarisation of perpetrators and victims. The articles gathered in the volume take a decidedly transnational perspective and apply recent methods and trends in literary and cultural studies.