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War, Denial and Nation-Building in Sri Lanka

After the End
ISBN:
978-3-319-56323-7
Auflage:
1st ed. 2017
Verlag:
Palgrave Macmillan, Springer International Publishing
Land des Verlags:
Schweiz
Erscheinungsdatum:
21.12.2017
Autoren:
Reihe:
Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict
Format:
Hardcover
Seitenanzahl:
378
Ladenpreis
164,99EUR (inkl. MwSt. zzgl. Versand)
Lieferung in 5-10 Werktagen Versandkostenfreie Lieferung innerhalb Österreichs bis 31. Jänner 2025
This book begins from a critical account of the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war, tracing themes of nationalism, discourse and conflict memory through this period of immense violence and into its aftermath. Using these themes to explore state crime, atrocity and its denial and representation, Seoighe offers an analysis of how stories of conflict are authored and constructed. This book examines the political discourse of the former Rajapaksa government, highlighting how fluency in international discourses of counter-terrorism, humanitarianism and the ‘reconciliation’ expected of states transitioning from conflict can be used to conceal and deny state violence.

Drawing on extensive interviews with activists, academics, politicians, state representatives and international agency staff, and three months of observation in Sri Lanka in 2012, Seoighe demonstrates how the Rajapaksa government re-narrativised violence through orchestrated techniquesof denial and mass ritual discourse. It drew on and perpetuated a heightened majoritarian Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism which consolidated power under Sinhalese political elites, generated minority grievances and, in turn, sustained the repression and dispossession of the Tamil community of the Northeast. A detailed and evocative study, this book will be of special interest to scholars of conflict studies, political violence and critical criminology.
Biografische Anmerkung
Rachel Seoighe is a Criminologist and Socio-Legal Scholar and a Lecturer in Criminology (Human Rights and Criminal Justice) at Middlesex University’s Department of Criminology and Sociology, UK.