Book contents
- Imagining Transitional Justice
- Law in Context
- Imagining Transitional Justice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Chapter 1Stories about the Aftermath of Atrocity
- Chapter 2Imagining the Future in Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia
- Chapter 3Tracing Dialogicality of Truth
- Chapter 4Enduring Injustice: Perceptions of Justice and Accountability
- Chapter 5Recognising Those Who Do Not Heal
- Chapter 6Between Trust and Fear: Making Space for Reconciliation
- Chapter 7Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 3 - Tracing Dialogicality of Truth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2026
Book contents
- Imagining Transitional Justice
- Law in Context
- Imagining Transitional Justice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Chapter 1Stories about the Aftermath of Atrocity
- Chapter 2Imagining the Future in Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia
- Chapter 3Tracing Dialogicality of Truth
- Chapter 4Enduring Injustice: Perceptions of Justice and Accountability
- Chapter 5Recognising Those Who Do Not Heal
- Chapter 6Between Trust and Fear: Making Space for Reconciliation
- Chapter 7Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines truth, foregrounding the shared characteristics of different types of truth. The chapter brings together Boris Boubacar Diop’s novel Murambi, The Book of Bones and the ICTR case Prosecutor v. Simba alongside Goran Vojnović’s Yugoslavia, My Fatherland and the ICTY case Prosecutor v. Mrkšić et al. Building on insights from narratology, this chapter traces the dialogicality of truth through analysis of the construction of truth in dialogue, the ways in which truths are obscured in dialogue, the impact of the absence of dialogue, and truth that emerges in dialogue with objects and documents. The literary texts offer certainty that remains absent in the ambiguous and open-ended accounts is the legal narratives. Revising the dominant focus on differences between personal, social, legal and forensic truth, the chapter argues that these types of truth are social and partial.
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- Imagining Transitional JusticeThe Construction of Meaning in the Arts and Law, pp. 59 - 93Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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