The Theatre of Genocide


Book Description

In this pioneering volume, Robert Skloot brings together four plays—three of which are published here for the first time—that fearlessly explore the face of modern genocide. The scripts deal with the destruction of four targeted populations: Armenians in Lorne Shirinian’s Exile in the Cradle, Cambodians in Catherine Filloux’s Silence of God, Bosnian Muslims in Kitty Felde’s A Patch of Earth, and Rwandan Tutsis in Erik Ehn’s Maria Kizito. Taken together, these four plays erase the boundaries of theatrical realism to present stories that probe the actions of the perpetrators and the suffering of their victims. A major artistic contribution to the study of the history and effects of genocide, this collection carries on the important journey toward understanding the terror and trauma to which the modern world has so often been witness.




Theatres of Violence


Book Description

Massacres and mass killings have always marked if not shaped the history of the world and as such are subjects of increasing interest among historians. The premise underlying this collection is that massacres were an integral, if not accepted part (until quite recently) of warfare, and that they were often fundamental to the colonizing process in the early modern and modern worlds. Making a deliberate distinction between 'massacre' and 'genocide', the editors call for an entirely separate and new subject under the rubric of 'Massacre Studies', dealing with mass killings that are not genocidal in intent. This volume offers a reflection on the nature of mass killings and extreme violence across regions and across centuries, and brings together a wide range of approaches and case studies.




The Theatre of Genocide


Book Description

In this pioneering volume, Robert Skloot brings together four plays—three of which are published here for the first time—that fearlessly explore the face of modern genocide. The scripts deal with the destruction of four targeted populations: Armenians in Lorne Shirinian’s Exile in the Cradle, Cambodians in Catherine Filloux’s Silence of God, Bosnian Muslims in Kitty Felde’s A Patch of Earth, and Rwandan Tutsis in Erik Ehn’s Maria Kizito. Taken together, these four plays erase the boundaries of theatrical realism to present stories that probe the actions of the perpetrators and the suffering of their victims. A major artistic contribution to the study of the history and effects of genocide, this collection carries on the important journey toward understanding the terror and trauma to which the modern world has so often been witness.




Darkness We Carry


Book Description

Offering an informed critical approach, Skloot discusses more than two dozen plays and one film that confront the issues and stories of the Holocaust.




Genocide and Victimology


Book Description

Genocide and Victimology examines genocide in its diverse features, from different yet connected perspectives, to offer an interdisciplinary, victimological imagination of genocide. It will include in its exploration critical and cultural victimologies and criminologies of genocide, accompanied by, and recognising, the rich scholarship on genocide in the fields of religion and history, theatre studies and photography, philosophy and existentialism, post-colonialism, and ethnography and biography. Bringing together theory with empirical research and drawing on a range of case studies, such as the Treblinka extermination camp, the Bosnian and Rwandan genocides, the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, Canada, and genocidal violence in Syria and Iraq, this book engages the victimological imagination towards an interdisciplinary, cosmopolitan victimology of genocide. Bundled and intertwined, the wide yet integrated variety of perspectives on genocide gives readers a victimological kaleidoscope to discover, and for victimology hitherto, unexplored theory and methodology. This way, readers can develop their own more epistemologically, theoretically, and methodologically robust victimology of genocide—a victimology of genocide as envisioned by Nicole Rafter. The book hopes to canvas an understanding and a starting point for a diverse appreciation of genocide victimhood and survivorship from which the real post-genocidal harms and sites, post-traumatic stress disorder, courts and tribunals, and overall meaningful justice will benefit. Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to students and scholars in criminology, sociology, cultural studies, philosophy, history, religious studies, English literature, and all those concerned with not repeating a history of genocide.




I Wish to Die Singing


Book Description

The Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century, perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish Government against the Armenians, a Christian minority in a Muslim state. One and a half million people died. The word 'genocide' itself was invented by Raphael Lemkin in 1943 to describe the events of 1915. Adolf Hitler used the Armenian Genocide as a direct inspiration for the Holocaust during the Second World War. To this day, the Turkish government refuses to admit that any genocide ever took place. Commemorating the exact centenary of the deportations that began the Armenian Genocide, I Wish To Die Singing – Voices From The Armenian Genocide is a controversial documentary drama uncovering the forgotten secrets and atrocities of a denied genocide – featuring eye-witness reportage, images, music, poetry from Armenia's greatest poets, and verbatim survivors testimonies from one of the greatest historical injustices of all time.




Our Lady of Kibeho


Book Description

THE STORY: In 1981, a village girl in Rwanda claims to see the Virgin Mary. She is denounced by her superiors and ostracized by her schoolmates—until impossible happenings begin to appear to all. Skepticism gives way to fear, causing upheaval in the school community and beyond. Based on real events, OUR LADY OF KIBEHO is an exploration of faith, doubt, and the power and consequences of both.




Children of Killers


Book Description

THE STORY: The president of Rwanda is releasing the killers. Years after the Tutsi genocide, the perpetrators begin to trickle back into the country side to be reunited with their villages. A trio of friends—born during the genocide’s bloody aftermath—prepare to meet the men who gave them life. But as the homecoming day draws closer, the young men are haunted by the sins of their fathers. Who can you become when violence is your inheritance?




Performing the Nation


Book Description

Rwanda: history and legend -- Performing justice: Gacaca, Frankfurt Auschwitz trials and the TRC -- Gacaca courts as Kubabarira: testimony, justice and reconciliation -- Reconciliation and the limits of empathy: grassroots associations -- Ukuri Mubinyoma (Truth in Lies): the performativity of rape and gender-based violence -- Transnational approaches to memorials and commemorations: crisis of witnessing.




Performing Difference


Book Description

Performing Difference is a compilation of seventeen essays from some of the leading scholars in history, criticism, film, and theater studies. Each author examines the portrayal of groups and individuals that have been traditionally marginalized or excluded from dominant historical narratives. As a meeting point of several fields of study, this book is organized around three meta-themes: race, gender, and genocide. Included are analyses of films and theatrical productions from the United States, as well as essays on cinema from Southern and Central America, Europe, and the Middle East. Topically, the contributing authors write about the depiction of race, ethnicities, gender and sexual orientation, and genocides. This volume assesses how the performing arts have aided in the social construction of the 'other' in differing contexts. Its fundamental premise is that performance is powerful, and its unifying thesis is that the arts remain a major forum for advancing a more nuanced and humane vision of social outcasts, not only in the realm of national imaginations, but in social relations as well.