Reading the hermeneutics of violence: The literary turn and Chechnya

Global Society

Volumn 20, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 179-198

  Moore, Cerwyn ^a  

^a NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

VIOLENCE; WAR;

CHECHNYA; EURASIA; RUSSIAN FEDERATION;

EID: 33645580710     PISSN: 13600826     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13600820600576431     Document Type: Article

References (93)

1. Parts of this paper were presented at the Security Bytes conference at the University of Lancaster, July 2004. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the British Academy for the financial support which has allowed me to develop this research and those who attended the Security Bytes conference and passed comment. Moreover, I would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers, Stephen Chan and Martin Shaw for their help with this research. Finally, I would like to thank Christopher Farrands, Christopher Coker, Alex Talbot, Rick Simon, Lloyd Pettiford, Eleonore Kofman, Roy Smith, Tom De Waal, John Russell, Emil Souleimanov, Charlotte Praeger, Alison Waller and Iain Hansen.
2. Hidemi Suganami, "Explaining War: Some Critical Observations", International Relations, Vol. 16, No. 3 (2002), pp. 307-326
3. and Martin Shaw, "Risk-transfer Militarism, Small Massacres and the Historic Legitimacy of War", International Relations, Vol. 16, No. 3 (2002), pp. 343-360.
4. Obviously the war on terror is one such example that has provoked widespread theoretical debate, whilst the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq have provided the opportunity for a considerable amount of analysis. See, for instance, Roy Medvedev and Peter Van Ham (eds.), Mapping European Security after Kosovo (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001), pp. 1-14.
5. For a detailed analysis of the differences between the functions of literature, see Tony Bennett, "Criticism and Literature", in Formalism and Marxism (Methuen: London and New York, 1979), pp. 3-17.
6. Susan Layton, "Introduction", in Russian Literature and Empire: Conquest of the Caucasus from Pushkin to Tolstoy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 12.
7. Alexandre Bennigsen and S. Enders Wimbush, "The Spread of Islam and Russian Expansionism", in Muslims of the Soviet Empire: A Guide (London: Hurst, 1985), pp. 5-12.
8. Paul Henze, "Circassian Resistance to Russia", in Marie Broxup (ed.), The North Caucasus Barrier: The Russian Advance Towards the Muslim World (London: Hurst, 1996), pp. 62-111.
9. Moshe Gammer, "Russian Strategies in the Conquest of Chechnia and Daghestan, 1825-1859", in Marie Broxup (ed.), op. cit. (London: Hurst, 1996), pp. 45-61.
10. Layton, op. cit., pp. 7-9.
11. Marie Broxup, "The Last Ghazawat: The 1920-1921 Uprising", in Marie Broxup (ed.), op. cit., pp. 112-145.
12. John Russell, "Mujahedeen, Mafia, Madmen...: Russian Perceptions of Chechens during the Wars in Chechnya, 1994-1996 and 1999-to Date", Journal of Post-Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol. 18, No. 1 (2002), pp. 73-96.
13. Galina Yemelianova, Russia and Islam: A Historical Survey (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 166-193.
14. Ibid., p. 185.
15. Ibid., p. 186.
16. For example, the Russian military security service has transformed from the KGB to the FSK and in the mid-1990s to the FSB in an attempt to re-identify its own role in post-communist Russian politics.
17. Anna Zelkina, "The Chechen Future in the Russian Federation", Helsinki Monitor, No. 3 (2000), pp. 51-52.
18. Anna Politkovskaya, Novaya Gazeta, No. 68 (16 September 2002), available: .
19. Of course, numerous other examples exist other than those discussed here. See, for instance, Leo Tolstoy, The Cossacks (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985)
20. John Steinbeck with photographs by Robert Capa, A Russian Journal (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999)
21. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982).
22. Mayrbek Vachagayev, "Sovremennoye Chechenskoye Obshchestvo", Tsentral'naya Azia i Kavkaz, No. 2 (2003), p. 16.
23. Y. Chesnov, "Byt Chechentsem: Lichnost i etnicheskiye identifikatsii naroda", in D. Furman (ed.), Chechnya i Rossiya: Obshchestva i gosudarstva (Moscow: Andrei Sakharov Foundation, 1999).
24. See, for instance, Anatol Lieven, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).
25. Anna Politkosvskaya, available: .
26. Anne Nivat, Chienne de guerre: A Woman Reporter behind the Lines of the War in Chechnya (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), p. 199.
27. Aside from the main body of literature touched upon here, see Iver B. Neumann and Steve Smith, "Forum: Are Dialogue and Synthesis Possible in International Relations?", International Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2003), pp. 137-140
28. Adam David Morton, "The Social Function of Carlos Fuentes: A Critical Intellectual or in the 'Shadow of the State'?", Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 22, No. 1 (2003), pp. 27-51
29. Stephen Chan, "Writing Sacral IR: An Excavation Involving Kung, Eliade, and Illiterate Buddhism", Millennium, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2000), pp. 565-590.
30. An important consideration worth highlighting here is the relationship between the hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer and the dialogism of Mikhail Bakhtin. Although important distinctions exist between these two philosophers, the use of stories and interpretations of meaning seeks to draw upon similarities in their work.
31. Milan Kundera, The Art of Novel (Chatham: Gallimard, 1990), p. 5.
32. Ibid., p. 44.
33. Ibid., p. 19.
34. Chan, op. cit., p. 579.
35. Kundera, op. cit., p. 19.
36. Ibid., p. 57.
37. Joanna Bourke, An Intimate History of Killing: Face to Face Killing in 20th CenturyWarfare (London: Granta, 1999), p. 12.
38. Roland Bleiker, "Learning from Art: A Reply to Holden's 'World Literature and World Politics'", Global Society, Vol. 17, No. 4 (2003), p. 419.
39. Leo Tolstoy, The Raid and Other Stories (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 25.
40. For the former, see Anna Politkovskaya, A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya (London: Harvill Press, 2001), p. 56
41. and for the latter, see J. Colausso, Nart Sagas from the Caucasus: Myths and Legends from the Circassians, Abazas, Abkhaz, and Ubykhs (Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2002).
42. Michael Moriarty, Roland Barthes (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), pp. 59-72.
43. Within IR theory, a good example of using genre to read global politics can be found in the work of Louiza Odessyous; see, for instance, "Laughing Matters: Peace, Democracy and the Challenge of the Comic Narrative", Millennium, Vol. 30, No. 3 (2001), pp. 709-732.
44. See, for instance, Hans Jass and his work on "reception theory".
45. See also Michael Moriarty, op. cit., pp. 31-43, 91-102.
46. Roland Bleiker, Popular Dissent, Human Agency and Global Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 65.
47. Cerwyn Moore, Contemporary Violence: Postmodem War in Kosovo and Chechnya (Manchester: MUP, 2007).
48. Anthony Loyd, My War Gone By, I Miss it So (London: Transworld Publishers, 2000), pp. 235-236.
49. Ibid., p. 236.
50. Ibid., p. 236.
51. Bleiker, op. cit., p. 427.
52. See Vazha Pshvela, "Host and Guest", in Mikheil Kvesselava (ed.), Georgian Poetry (Tiblisi: Akolasia, 2004), pp. 80-90.
53. Gholam-Reza Sabri-Tabrizi, "Chechnya and the Impact of the Chechen Conflict on Russia, the CIS and Iran", in Ali Mohammadi and Anoushiravan Ehteshami (eds.), Iran and Eurasia (Reading: Garnet, 2000), p. 170.
54. Roland Barthes, Mythologies (Paris: Seuil, 1957).
55. Harsha Ram, The Imperial Sublime: A Russian Poetics of Empire (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003), p. 215.
56. Roland Barthes, Empire of Signs (London: Cape, 1983).
57. Andrei Belyi, "Apokapilpsis v russkoi poèzii", in Republika (Moscow: Simvolizm kak miroponimanie, 1994), pp. 409-410.
58. See After 9/11 (2003), available: .
59. Susan Layton, "A Russian Reverie: Chechnya's Literary Legacy", History Today, Vol. 47, No. 2 (1997), pp. 6-9.
60. Ibid., p. 7.
61. Russell, op. cit., pp. 73-96.
62. Ram, op. cit., p. 9.
63. Ibid., p. 208.
64. Stephen Chan and Peter Mandaville (eds.), The Zen of International Relations (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), p. 9.
65. Ram, op. cit., p. 11.
66. Layton, op. cit., pp. 113-114.
67. Ibid., p. 111.
68. Ram, op. cit., p. 11.
69. Andre Field (ed.), "Foreword", in The Complexion of Russian Literature (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971), p. ix.
70. Unsurprisingly, this section of the story did not make it past the Russian censors before print.
71. Leo Tolstoy, The Raid and Other Stories, op. cit., p. 22.
72. Human Rights Watch, Press Release, "More Evidence of Rape by Russian Forces in Chechnya" (30 March 2000), available:
73. Amnesty International Report, "Russian Federation: Chechen Republic 'Normalization' in whose eyes?" (23 June 2004), available: .
74. Finally, see BBC News, "Chechen Visit a Mixed Success" (4 April 2000), available: .
75. Photo-Feature, "Grozny: 'An Internal' Russian Matter", Index on Censorship, Vol. 25 (1996), pp. 24-30
76. and "Chechen Warning", pp. 31-32.
77. Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal, Chechnya: A Small Victorious War (London: Pan, 1997), pp. 15-36.
78. David Campbell, National Deconstruction: Violence, Identity, and Justice in Bosnia (London: University of Minnesota Press, 1991), p. 13.
79. Krystyna Kurczab-Redlich, "Torture and Rape Stalk the Streets of Chechnya", The Observer (Sunday 27 October 2002)
80. Human Rights Watch, "Russia/Chechnya_Swept Under: Torture, Forced Disappearances, and Extra-judicial Killings During Sweep Operations in Chechnya", Vol. 14, No. 2 (February 2002).
81. Human Rights Situation in Chechnya: Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper to the 59th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, United Nations (7 April 2003).
82. Russell, op cit., pp. 73-96.
83. For instance, in February 2001 an unmarked grave was discovered at the Khankala military base where at least 60 corpses were found and this was expanded upon in a Human Rights Watch Report, which went on to say they had documented eight unmarked graves between 2000 and 2001. Human Rights Watch, "Russia/Chechnya: The Dirty War in Chechnya: Forced Disappearances, Torture, and Summary Executions", Vol. 13, No. 1 (March 2001), available: .
84. Human Rights Watch Report (April 2004), "Russia: Nine Civilians Extrajudicially Executed in Chechnya", available: .
85. This is certainly the conclusion that Harsha Ram comes to in his analysis of the monographs by Anatol Lieven, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998)
86. and Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal, op. cit.
87. See Harsha Ram, "Prisoners of the Caucasus: Literary Myths and Media Representations of the Chechen Conflict" (1999), available: (accessed 15 May 2004).
88. Russell, op. cit., p. 97.
89. Leo Tolstoy, "Prisoner in the Caucasus", in Ivan the Fool and Other Stories (London: A. & C. Black, 1931), p. 88.
90. A. Kolesnikov, "One Day in the Death of Pervomayskoye: A War Diary from Chechnya", Index on Censorship, Vol. 25, No. 2 (1996), pp. 21-25.
91. Perhaps the best two examples of Russian society's alienation from its governments are depicted by the Russian human rights group Memorial and the Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia. For more information see their respectiveWeb sites: and (accessed 20 December 2004). This point was emphasised in interviews by the author with Valentina Melnikova of the Union of Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, and Anna Pastukhova of Memorial.
92. Ram, op. cit., p. 205.
93. Judith Miller and Eric Lichtblau, "U.S. Investigates Moscow Theatre Siege: Seeking Qaeda Link", New York Times (19 November 2003), available: .