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Literature's Contribution to 'Honour' Killings

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Literature's Contribution to 'Honour' Killings Literature’s Contribution to ‘Honour’ Killings: Challenging Cultural Values and Traditions Inaz Aziz A Thesis Presented to The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages UNIVERSITETET I OSLO SEPTEMBER 2019 II Literature’s Contribution to ‘Honour’ Killings: Challenging Cultural Values and Traditions Inaz Aziz III © Inaz Aziz 2019 Literature’s Contribution to ‘Honour’ Killings: Challenging Cultural Values and Traditions Inaz Aziz http://www.duo.uio.no Print: Copycat IV Abstract This thesis will analyse how three different literary texts contribute in the discussion of ‘honour’ killings, and how they challenge cultural values and traditions in honour and shame based communities. The literary texts are the following: Sarbjit Kaur Athwal’s memoir Shamed: The Honour Killing that Shocked Britain – by the Sister Who Fought for Justice, Rana Husseini’s memoir Murder in the Name of Honour and Elif Shafak’s novel Honour. By exploring the aspect of dehumanization, the power of testimony and witnessing, the notion of life narratives, and discrimination against women, as seen through the different texts, I aim to propose a solution on how to not only challenge, but also change cultural values and traditions. There is a dire need to stop murdering girls and women in the name of honour, and these three authors, through their unique style, language and content, call for not only an ethical response, but for their readers to stand up and take action. V VI Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank Rebecca Scherr for being an excellent supervisor. I have appreciated every word of wisdom and guidance you have given me. PS.: I know I wasn’t the easiest student to supervise. Secondly, I want to thank my brilliant uni-girls: you all know who you are. Complaining has never been so much fun. Thirdly, a massive thank you goes to my family and T: whenever I felt like giving up, you were the push I needed to get back on it. I’ll be forever grateful. VII VIII Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 10 Concept of Honour ....................................................................................................................................................... 11 Theories ............................................................................................................................................................................ 15 Outline of Chapters ...................................................................................................................................................... 18 1 Shamed .................................................................................................................................................... 20 1.1 The memoir: interiority, the inner self ................................................................................................. 22 1.2 Memoir as verbal art................................................................................................................................... 24 1.3 Human rights violations ............................................................................................................................ 25 1.4 Discourse of dehumanization: the derealisation of the ‘Other’ .................................................. 29 1.5 Gender-based violence ................................................................................................................................ 35 1.6 The power of testimony: bearing witness ........................................................................................... 37 1.7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 41 2 Murder in the Name of Honour ...................................................................................................... 43 2.1 The memoir: a teaching moment ........................................................................................................... 44 2.2 The balance between the inner self and reporting .......................................................................... 45 2.3 Dehumanization: invisibility and lack of power ............................................................................... 47 2.4 From the standpoint of a feminist.......................................................................................................... 52 2.5 Testimony: becoming the voice of hundreds of victims ................................................................. 56 2.6 Being part of the change ........................................................................................................................... 58 2.7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 60 3 Honour ..................................................................................................................................................... 62 3.1 The novel: authorial intentions ............................................................................................................... 63 3.2 The modern novel’s impact on society ................................................................................................. 65 3.3 Codes of honour: a dehumanizing and gender-based process .................................................... 70 3.4 Expectations of honour in another country ....................................................................................... 75 3.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 80 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 81 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 86 IX Introduction Honour is respect for life. Honour is respect for love. There is no honour in murder. Jane Fonda, Murder in the Name of Honour Literature has the power of conveying emotions, experiences, and psychological explanations of human behaviours. We learn about each other through literature, in the sense that it gives us an insight into other human minds; into how different individuals perceive things; into different cultures; and into different societies. We may unite or come further apart through literature in the way that it allows us to ask questions about one and another. In other words, literary texts can have tremendous effect on its readers’ thoughts, emotions and feelings, even up to the point where the readers stand up to take action. This thesis will look at how three different literary texts contribute in the discussion of ‘honour’ killings, and how they challenge cultural values and traditions. The literary texts I have chosen for this thesis are Shamed: The Honour Killing that Shocked Britain – by the Sister Who Fought for Justice (2013), a memoir written by Sarbjit Kaur Athwal; Murder in the Name of Honour (2009) written by Rana Husseini, which will be viewed in this thesis as yet another memoir, but unique in the way it tells the story of the many victims of ‘honour’ killings; and the third and final text, Honour (2012), a novel written by Elif Shafak. The aim of my thesis is to answer the following question: How do these authors, through their language, style and content, challenge cultural values and traditions in honour- based-violence communities? By exploring the aspect of dehumanization, the power of testimony and witnessing, and the discrimination against women, I hope to take part in the discussion on the issue of ‘honour’ killings, and propose a solution based on the findings in the literary texts. There is a dire need to stop murdering girls and women in the name of honour and these three authors, through each of their unique ways, call for not only an ethical response, but for their readers to stand up and take action. Can a literary text change centuries-old cultural values and traditions, and if so, how? The memoirs I have chosen for my thesis can both be viewed as life narratives. These life narratives are connected with violations of human rights, and in their own ways, confront readers with “emotional, often overwhelming, accounts of dehumanization, brutal and violent physical harm, and exploitation” (Smith and Watson 133). By writing their narratives, the authors are telling readers that these stories are too important to remain untold, and while they may never be certain as to how the publication, circulation and reception of their stories 10 will be received, “their scenes of witness entwine the narrator, the story, and the listener/reader in an ethical call to empathic identification and accountability, recognition, and oftentimes action” (Smith, and Watson 134). There is no escaping the urgent call for attention life narratives make, where they, through their writing, ask their readers to give an ethical response to, more often than not, stories that are vastly different from their own. Schaffer and Smith in Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition (2004) explain what happens when people connect through life narratives:
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