Table Of ContentA Poetics of Forgiveness
A Poetics of Forgiveness
Cultural Responses
to Loss and Wrongdoing
Jill Scott
A POETICS OF FORGIVENESS
Copyright © Jill Scott, 2010.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-61531-1
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First published in 2010 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-37911-8 ISBN 978-0-230-10624-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230106246
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Scott, Jill, 1968–
A poetics of forgiveness : cultural responses to loss and wrongdoing / Jill
Scott.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Forgiveness in literature. 2. Forgiveness in motion pictures. I. Title.
PN56.F65S36 2010
809(cid:2).93353—dc22 2009026810
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: March 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C O N T E N T S
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: A Poetics of Forgiveness 1
1 Anger without Emotion: Revenge from the
Iliad to Kill Bill 25
2 Mourning to the Limit: Forgiveness in H.D.’s The Gift 45
3 Phonemes of Forgiveness in Kafka’s Letter to His Father 65
4 Inappropriate Apology in Ingeborg Bachmann’s
The Book of Franza 89
5 Photography and Forgiveness: Visualizing Reconciliation 113
6 Poetic and Performative Forgiveness in the
South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission 141
7 Metaphors of Forgiveness after 9/11 167
Conclusion: Forgiveness as an Ethics of Everyday Life 199
Appendix A 205
Appendix B 209
Appendix C 211
Notes 215
Bibliography 239
Index 253
F I G U R E S
5.1 German boy, face blackened from coal mining (1950) 113
5.2 Cover art from Road from Ruin (1949) 121
5.3 Shepherd with his flock (1948) 122
5.4 Children looking into the doorway of the
Ulm City Hall (1948) 127
5.5 A deserted street in West Berlin (1956) 131
5.6 Rosine checks out her first camera (2005) 135
5.7 Children at the Gisimba Memorial Centre
Orphanage receiving instruction in photography (2005) 136
5.8 Budding photographers try out their new cameras (2005) 137
5.9 One Saturday, I ran out of cameras (2005) 138
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
I want to begin by saying simply that I am enormously grateful for the
opportunity and also for the time to think about forgiveness. It has truly
been a privilege to engage in what I might call “sustained wondering”
about the human capacity to resolve conflict in creative ways—Hannah
Arendt was right when she said that “to think and to be fully alive are
the same thing.” I have been living with the question of forgiveness for
seven years this month, and after this long gestation period, it seems
time to let the project go, or to let someone else explore these questions
further in some other form.
The project began to take shape in Spring 2002, when the Periodical
of the Modern Language Association published a series of articles asking
about the role of forgiveness in literary studies and critical thought. It
was timely, given that in the previous months the world had been com-
ing to grips with the first major terrorist attacks on North American
soil, and it seemed that resolution and reconciliation was quickly giving
way to vengeance, at least in American foreign policy. I knew right
away that this would be my next project—I simply had to say some-
thing, even though at that time I didn’t know what that something
would be. The questions of how forgiveness is mediated by literature
and what literary studies can bring to secular debates on forgiveness
have held my attention in a vice grip ever since. If we are honest about
it, we have to admit that we don’t really pick our research topics—they
haunt us until we give in. And although we write the words, we are
also written by them, which is to say that we are unalterably changed
by the experience. And that is true in my case.
In the meantime, much has changed in the world. The frustration
and anger at the military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the revoking
of American civil rights, and torture and human rights violations in
Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay have given way to new optimism
x Acknowledgments
and faith in humanity with the election of the first black president of
the United States, who has made clear his commitment to change of
massive proportions. Barack Obama will have a hard time living up to
the expectations of his electorate, or for that matter the hopes and
dreams of much of the rest of the world—here in Canada, it also feels
like there has been a transformation in the global political landscape. It
is not that questions of forgiveness and peaceful coexistence are no
longer necessary, just that the “conditions of possibility” and the social
and political contexts in which we pose them have changed.
This book would not have been possible without the amazing sup-
port, guidance, and wisdom shared freely by family, friends, colleagues,
and students. The list is already very long, but I’m sure I’ll leave someone
out—please forgive me! Some of you may be surprised to see your
name here, but anyone who generously offered me inspiration or ideas
deserves credit. In alphabetical order, I want to thank Ruth Albrecht,
Peter Banki, Hana Bokshi, Gloria Brumer, Annette Buehler-Dietrich,
Marie Carrière, Bob Fleming, Corina Fonyodi-Szarka, Pumla Gobodo-
Madikizela, Trudy Govier, Charles Griswold, Ruth Henderson, Linda
Hutcheon, Rosemary Jolly, Andrea King, Dennis Klein, Tatiana
Konstanian, Margaret Maliszewska, Eva Patalas, Paul Patterson, Helen
Phillips, Pat Rae, Baji Rankin, Vicki Remenda, Jenn Stephenson,
Florentine Strzelczyk, Cath Styles, Kresta Venning, Jan Walsh, Jean
Wilson, and John Zilcosky. Often, inspiration came from casual
conversations in the form of “collaborative wondering” about these
questions—thank you so much, all of you.
I want to express my sincere appreciation for all my wonderful
colleagues in the Department of German at Queen’s University, and for
the students in two graduate seminars on poetic forgiveness, who
helped me think about these ideas in creative ways. Thanks go as well
to the editorial staff at Palgrave Macmillan and to the anonymous
reader, whose suggestions helped shape the final version. A Standard
Research Grant and the Aurora Prize from the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada provided funding for research
assistants, conference travel, and permissions. A supreme thank you
goes to Sonja Allen and Andrea Speltz, fantastic research assistants who
put everything on hold to support the final editing process.
For cheering me on and for patiently listening to me talk about “the
book,” my heartfelt thanks go to all of my parents, Sylvia and John, Bill
and Sandra, and Gail and Ken, and to my sister Elin and her family. I
credit my ninety-five-year old grandmother, Blanche Moxley, who
overcame the hardships of growing up in depression-era Saskachewan
Acknowledgments xi
to become a poet and a pilot, for gifting me with a love of language and
verse. Exhuberant gratitude goes to Lar Short, who has helped with
this book in ways I will never understand. Finally, my deepest gratitude
goes to my children, Cailean and Amelia, who have taught me more
than anyone else about generosity and unconditional love. This book is
dedicated to Stephen, for whose wisdom and tenderness I have no
words.
I am grateful for permission to reprint versions of three chapters. An
earlier version of chapter two was originally published as “Mourning to
the Limit: The Gift of Forgiveness in H.D” in Modernism and Mourning,
ed. Patricia Rae, Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2007:
286–301; part of chapter five appeared as “Photography and Forgiveness”
in Queen’s Quarterly 13.4 (2006): 606–617; and a version of chapter 6
was published as “Forgifting: Poetic and Performative Forgiving in the
South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission” in Memory,
Narrative and Forgiveness: Perspectives on the Unfinished Journeys of the Past,
ed. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela and Chris Van der Merwe. Newcastle
upon Tyne, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009: 213–236.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Robert J. Fleming for permis-
sion to reprint photographs from his private collection in chapter five;
to Kresta K.C. Venning for permission to reprint photographs from
her private collection in chapter five; to the Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt
for permission to quote from Paul Celan’s “Todesfuge” in Mohn und
Gedächtnis. Gedichte, © 1952; to Ingrid de Kok for permission to quote
from “Parts of Speech” in Seasonal Fires, © 2006.
Introduction: A Poetics of Forgiveness
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.
—Rudyard Kipling
We need only pick up a newspaper or listen to the news to be reminded
that violent conflicts rage around the globe—the mere mention of Iraq,
Afghanistan, Darfur, Tibet, and Palestine conjures up horrific images
of death and destruction. Unfortunately, clashes in our interpersonal
relationships are just as common, ranging from petty strife between
coworkers to disturbing cases of abuse. Some people throw up their
hands and conclude that humans are at base cruel and vindictive and
nothing can be done. Others will naïvely hope for world peace or fairy-
tale reunions. But one thing seems clear: Given the level of political and
interpersonal conflict in our world, there is an urgent need for discus-
sions of forgiveness and reconciliation.1
A Poetics of Forgiveness takes the position that investigating the rela-
tionship between creative human expressions and forgiveness can help
us understand and negotiate conflicts, whether small or large. I do not
mean the Oprah-style “happy ending” forgiveness where everyone hugs
and makes up. Nor is this forgiveness limited to specific cases of conflict
and wrongdoing. Rather, the “poetic forgiveness” I will be speaking
about might best be described as an ongoing ethical practice, an atti-
tude, a disposition, or even a mode of being in the world with others.
I am not alone in thinking of forgiveness as a timely topic. Research
on forgiveness has increased significantly in recent years as the dis-
cussion has moved beyond theology and religion to encompass secular
disciplines, such as philosophy, political science, psychology, law, and
women’s studies. There are also new and important pragmatic approaches
