Department or Program

English

Abstract

Erasure, the targeted eradication of a population, the disorienting rearrangement of land and the repression of these realities in the collective memory, thrives on the dominance of a manipulated historical narrative. Natalie Diaz’s Postcolonial Love Poem (2020), Juan Goytisolo’s Landscapes of War (2000), and Jean-Luc Godard’s Notre Musique (2004) struggle against the prevailing ideological and structural forces that continue to inflict the injuries of “bygone” geopolitical conflicts. This thesis focuses on three conflicts: the Native American genocide, the Bosnian War, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Where international law fails to suspend ethnic cleansing and condemn memoricide, the mediums of poetry, political literature, and film can be useful in promoting conflict reconciliation through frameworks that align with the models of transitional justice and intergroup understanding. Diaz, Goytisolo, and Godard present testimonies, cartographic models, and visual evidence to reconstruct memory, reassess geopolitics, and redefine identities within a conflict. With the “soft power” to form the values, needs, and interests of conflict, these works practice conflict reconciliation at three different levels: the intrapersonal level, the institutional level, and the interpersonal level.

Level of Access

Open Access

First Advisor

Dillon, Steven

Date of Graduation

5-2023

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Number of Pages

86

Components of Thesis

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