Dr Zoe Norridge (New College, University of Oxford,
UK)
The Horror of a 'Lovely Spectacle' – Interlinking Pain and Beauty in Representations of the Rwandan Genocide
Rwanda is repeatedly referred to as beautiful. Writers describe the arresting loveliness of the hills whilst film-makers and photographers linger on the lakes and lush vegetation. And yet, in 1994, the country saw some of the most horrific violence of the late twentieth century. This paper argues that allusions to pain and beauty in the aftermath of genocide are, on occasion, interrelated. Art from and about Rwanda refers not only to the aesthetic qualities of the landscape but also, problematically, to those of the genocide victim’s corpse. What is the role of such aestheticisation in the context of overwhelming suffering?
To address such a complex question this paper will draw on Holocaust theory and African literary criticism to explore two key hypotheses. Firstly, that bearing witness to the aftermath of genocide is a performative act, the assertion of beauty in this context stressing both authorial ‘presence’ and by extension the personal nature of perceiving post-genocidal pain. Secondly, and in some ways conversely, that the closer the viewer feels to the killings – temporally, geographically and socially – the more they will tend to resist the aestheticisation of both landscapes and memorials.
Zoe Norridge is the Salvesen Fellow in African and Comparative Literature at New College, University of Oxford. She has published articles on literature from Rwanda, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Papua New Guinea and is increasingly interested in the links between literature, museums, photography and dance. Her current research focuses on cultural responses to memorial sites in post-genocide Rwanda and she convenes a masters option course exploring trauma narratives in contemporary African literature.
