Abstract

MARTINEZ RUIZ, Rosaura. Confronting evil or on the hospitable listening of the unheard. En-clav. pen [online]. 2022, vol.16, n.32, e538.  Epub Sep 26, 2022. ISSN 2594-1100.  https://doi.org/10.46530/ecdp.v0i32.538.

The purpose of this article is to explore how radical listening in cases of extreme violence has the power to restore or construct agency that has been taken away from victims. Drawing on Hannah Arendt's theory of action, Freud's trauma theory and Adriana Cavarero's notion of "narrative desire", I propose that lending an ear to the other's story is an ethical obligation and a political responsibility, as it allows us to hear the hitherto unheard and collectively construct new grammars of listening in order to give language, space and time to the experience of extreme violence.

Keywords : Radical Listening; Narrative Desire; Agency; Extreme Violence; Hannah Arendt.