Oral History As Literature Versus Silencing

Here, I will discuss that literature can be a powerful medium for the creation of narratives belonging to those who are systematically repressed. Since adding these narratives as foundational material to collective memory requires collective struggles on several levels and this goes beyond this article, my discussion will be limited to the possibilities of literature for the formation of memory of resistance against repression and violence in all spheres (social, political, intimate) and for its transmission to younger generations. I develop my discussion in the case of the literature of political prisoners imprisoned for life in Turkey; with the criterion of having at least one published literary work, there are more than 250 political prisoners with life sentences from 5 different generations (born between 1950 and 2000) whose work differs from poems to narratives/memoirs, short stories, novels, biographies, essays and oral histories. However, I will focus on three books of oral histories (Kardaki Kan by Yalçınkaya, Toprağın Şarkısı by Perişan, and Gün Ağarırken by Şahin) that focus on state violence in Turkey’s recent past. The silencing strategies of the dominant powers in many parts of this planet can be summarized as the forced disappearance of people, the murder of individuals or groups, and mass incarceration. Through the analysis of the above-mentioned oral histories, I will argue that, as the case of life-imprisoned Kurdish literature shows us, literature has the power to neutralize/deactivate these silencing strategies, insofar as it adds to collective and individual memories a dimension of resistance and recovers the links between old and new generations. The construction of the past allows the latter to understand the present and shape the future.