Introduction : post-conflict literature?

What is the role of literature in the aftermath of political conflict? Can literature help us to understand the legacies of a traumatic and violent history? How might thinking about literature inform the broader process of reimagining the past and realigning the co-ordinates of the future? These questions lie at the heart of the essays gathered under the title Post-Conflict Literature: Human Rights, Peace, Justice. The book brings together literary scholars from a variety of national contexts. The aim is simple: to create a trans-national dialogue about the ways in which literature has responded in the wake of political violence. The fundamental importance of such a project can be realized if we think about Rob Dixon’s concept of “slow violence.”