Plots of violence: knowledge production and the Cambodian Genocide

Abstract

This dissertation takes up the historical narrativization of the Cambodian Genocide, mapping how and with what lived consequences 1970s Khmer Rouge mass violence became consolidated into a dominant story – one that frequently governs how people live in its wake. With attention to state articulation, media, scholarship, and popular cultural production from the 1980s to the present, this project (1) reconstructs the historical process by which the Cambodian Genocide was received and its narrative shaped in important institutions, texts, and events; (2) studies the impact and negotiation of this narrativization on Cambodian people in the nation and diaspora; and (3) looks to contemporary Cambodian arts communities whose work and life projects offer revised visions of past and future world order that better meet their needs and desires.