LE3 .A278 2011

2011

Quéma, Anne

Acadia University

Master of Arts

Masters

English

English & Theatre Studies

In this thesis, I engage with theories of language and power from Hayden White, Pierre Bourdieu, and Judith Butler to question Restorative Justice‟s use of accounts of the self, both as a movement that justifies itself and as a practice of justice that asks participants to represent themselves. I challenge the claim that participants are genuinely empowered by the restorative encounter; closer inspection reveals that Restorative Justice‟s design for reconciliation through increased interconnection is easily employed to censor and/or produce subjects, especially offenders. In contradistinction, I offer an analysis of Alden Nowlan‟s poetic accounts of the self, which, formed at a distance from the community, offer valuable social critique and demonstrate the ethical value of exploring the self as ultimately unknowable. A concluding chapter proposes that poetry workshops in prison encourage narrative autonomy and exploration as well as offer a forum for ethical encounters between community members and prisoners.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:219