Vulnerability and Security in Human Rights Literature and Visual Culture

This insightful work critiques human rights frameworks, exploring how literature and visual culture illuminate often neglected claims and vulnerabilities. Vulnerability and Security in Human Rights Literature and Visual Culture offers a fresh perspective.

In Vulnerability and Security in Human Rights Literature and Visual Culture, the author examines the shortcomings of human rights frameworks and how they often perpetuate geopolitical inequalities and social exclusions. By analyzing literary and visual culture, the book reveals how these mediums can illuminate human rights claims that are often overlooked in mainstream discourse. The author employs theories of vulnerability, precarity, and dispossession to emphasize the importance of understanding the physical and contextual realities of human rights subjects.

Throughout the text, the author highlights the potential pitfalls of these theories, suggesting that they may inadvertently reinforce the very structural imbalances they seek to critique. By juxtaposing traditional human rights genres—such as legal documents and reports—with artistic expressions, the author creates a transnational feminist reading framework. This framework is applied to five significant case studies over the past fifty years, including the portrayal of child soldiers in Nigerian literature and the representation of state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwean novels.

The book ultimately argues that human rights norms are always influenced by the ways they are imaginatively represented. It stresses the need to situate human rights violations within the broader context of neoliberal policies and the expanding security networks that prioritize state interests over the safety of vulnerable populations. By exploring the intersection of vulnerability and human rights, Vulnerability and Security in Human Rights Literature and Visual Culture opens new avenues for understanding human suffering and agency.