Saturday, May 03, 2008

The Language of Trauma

She described what had happened to her husband and waht her son had seen as a "most unspeakable state of death." In other words, it was simple indescribable. She had no reference point against which to relate the experience. She was doing what many victims and survivors of trauma have done, which is to frame their testimonies in language that they themselves find inadequate to describe their experiences.


Gobodo-Madikizela, Pumla, "A human being died that night"


De manera inconsistente, he estado leyendo el libro "A human being died that night". La historia expone las reflexiones de la escritora sudafricana mientras narra a manera de diálogo las entrevistas que tuvo con uno de los comandantes más sanguinarios en la era del apartheid, Eugene de Kock.

No ahondaré en mis impresiones del libro en este post, sin embargo... encontré la explicación sobre lo indescriptible muy interesante. ¿Por qué? Porque determina de manera bastante objetiva el porqué de la subjetividad de lo "indescriptible". No es que un evento o sentimiento no pueda describirse, pero la persona que lo intenta hacer, no tiene manera de racionalizarlo en palabras.

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