The dynamics of deliberate and unintentional amnesia in narrative sensemaking and enaction of resilience: A case study of four Rwandan narratives of genocide survival

Abstract

In this case study, the author reports the findings of the narrative analyses of four Rwandan former refugees and genocide survivors from the USC-Shoah visual archive of holocaust and genocide survivors’ testimony. The analyses specifically identify and explicate some of the techniques of narrative sensemaking, both macro (thematic) and micro (via time and place, corporal/mental state recollection, and evaluation), and enaction of resilience. Overall, the results of the case study indicate that the dynamics of memory and amnesia—both deliberate and unintentional—can have an impact on narrative sensemaking and capacity for resilience of survivors of mass conflicts, genocides and displacement, both during and after mass-conflict.

Keywords

• memory
• sensemaking
• resilience
• refugees
• rwanda