Discuss the body ’ s efforts to communicate pain and / or suffering . By Luke Sey
In the Preface to We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families , Philip Gourevitch uses the word “ imagine ” to describe how the Rwandan Genocide was simultaneously an event beyond our realms of understanding and also the product of a manufactured truth ( i . e . a work of imagination ). And yet , despite alluding to the limitations of knowledge and how it can be manipulated , Gourevitch ’ s text goes to great lengths to explicate many aspects of the genocide , including the experiences of its victims . The contention of this assignment is that Gourevitch ’ s work fails to sidestep this limitation of knowledge and understanding , specifically in relation to language and how it can adequately communicate pain . To achieve this end , it will blend post-structuralist and postcolonial ideas to examine the failings of conveying pain ( our own or another ’ s ) through language . Following that , it will consider how viewing the pain and suffering of the genocide through the language and cultural references of the West further obscures our understanding of the Rwandan people and their pain which is being represented . The assignment will conclude by contemplating what ( if any ) alternatives are available to overcome the difficulties of communicating and representing pain .
To consider the problem of communicating one ’ s pain through language , we begin by considering the argument put forward by post-structuralists that language