A Poetics of Forgiveness: Cultural Responses to Loss and Wrongdoing

Despite recent interest in forgiveness and reconciliation, relatively little research has been conducted on forgiveness in literary studies. A Poetics of Forgiveness explores the profound links between creativity and forgiveness, and argues that creative production and interpretation can play a vital role in practices of forgiveness. Developing a model of “poetic forgiveness” through the work of Julia Kristeva, Jacques Derrida, and Kelly Oliver, A Poetics of Forgiveness asks how forgiveness is expressed in literature and other art forms, and what creative works can bring to secular debates on forgiveness and conflict resolution. Jill Scott explores these questions in a wide variety of historical and cultural contexts, from Homer’s Iliad to 9/11 novels, from postwar Germany to post-Apartheid South Africa, in canonical texts and in diverse media, including film, photography, and testimony.

Jill Scott is Associate Professor of German at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. She is the author of Electra after Freud: Myth and Culture (2005) and has published widely in the areas of German and Austrian Modernism, peace and conflict studies, opera and dance.