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Witnessing for the Future

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The Pedagogical Possibilities of Witnessing and Testimonies

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Abstract

In this final chapter Hållander concludes the argument of the book by highlighting how testimonies stand between the past and the future and have important things to speak of. If testimonies are not heard in teaching there is a possibility that the wounds of history will be silenced and forgotten. With reference to Agamben’s (Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive, 2008) understanding of how testimony stands between subjects, where one acts as auctor on behalf of the other, Hållander concludes how the pedagogical possibilities of testimony are based on a relational understanding, one that does not separate the different impossible testimonies from each other, as they are, in one sense, inseparable. Hållander further discuss the arrested time in teaching, wherein testimony from the past can interrupt and become a potential time of reflection, and of righting wrongs.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In relation to this I come tho think of the possibilities of the splitted tounge, which Franz Fanon speaks of (1967). To speak with the splitted tounge involves learning to speak the language of those who have the power, and through that language speak for those who’s voices are not heard. A splitted tongue that mastered the violence and diplomacy as well as the dialogue. An possibilities that I imagine is both about survival, but also about how one—as a witness—should be able to influence the environment one lives in by creating a third room that the Lord, the one in power, did not foresee.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Marie Hållander

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  1. Marie Hållander
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Correspondence to Marie Hållander .

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Hållander, M. (2020). Witnessing for the Future. In: The Pedagogical Possibilities of Witnessing and Testimonies. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55525-2_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55525-2_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-55524-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-55525-2

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