Writing and Righting: Literature in the Age of Human Rights

Description

The obvious humanity of books would seem to make literature and human rights natural allies. But what is the real connection between literature and human rights? In this short polemical book, Lyndsey Stonebridge shows how the history of human rights owes much to the creative imagining of writers. Yet, she argues, it is not enough to claim that literature is the empathetic wing of the human rights movement. At a time when human rights are so blatantly under attack, the writers we need how are the political truthtellers, the bold callers out of easy sympathy and comfortable platitudes. Dedication Preface and Acknowledgements Table of Contents 1. Introduction—Literature in the Endtimes (?) of Human Rights 2. Once More with Feeling 3. Experimental Human Rights: Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas 5. The Bewilderment of Everyday Violence: Shamima Begum, Freud, Citizenship and Law 6. Survival Time/Human Time: Hannah Arendt and Behrouz Boochani 7. Conclusion: Hannah Arendt in Baddawi Appendix: Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, ‘The Hands are Hers’ Endnotes Bibliography Index