Until the Victim Becomes our Own

Last updated

Until the Victim Becomes our Own
Author Dimitris Lyacos
Original titleΜέχρι το θύμα να γίνει δικό μας
TranslatorAndrew Barrett
LanguageGreek
SeriesPoena Damni
Genre World Literature, Postmodernism
Publication placevarious
Followed by Z213: Exit  

Until the Victim Becomes our Own is a composite novel by Greek author Dimitris Lyacos. [1] Conceived as the book "zeroth" of the Poena Damni trilogy the book explores bloodshed as the building-block in the formation of society and the eventual place of the individual in a world "permeated by institutionalized violence." [2]

Contents

Themes

Until the Victim Becomes Our Own explores the evolution of violence in a sequence of chapters each headed by a letter of the classical Latin alphabet. [1] The first chapters deal with violence in the animal world and are followed by an episode reminiscent of Cain's murder of Abel from the book of Genesis. [3] Further episodes depict violence in its socially more advanced, institutionalized forms, presenting in two consecutive sections the practice of incarceration from two different vantage points. According to an interview with Lyacos in World Literature Today chapter "L focuses on an inmate as part of the prison's general population, and M is a take on SHU, the segregation housing unit—solitary confinement as a strategy intended to help the inmate turn an inward eye on himself, contemplate his acts, and self-correct. This is an almost religious view of incarceration, one akin to the model of a monk in its cell, left alone with himself and God and surrounded by a monastery, which, incidentally, sociologist Erving Goffman groups in the category of total institutions". [4]

Publication History

Chapter O in Albanian translation appeared in Revista Letrare in 2022. [5] Chapter G in English translation appeared in Mayday Magazine in March 2023, [6] chapter D in Image in March 2024 [1] and chapter V in the Chicago Review [7] in August 2024. Chapters A, B and C translated in Hebrew by Ioram Melcer appeared in Alaxon magazine in September 2024. [8]


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vampire literature</span> Speculative literary genre

Vampire literature covers the spectrum of literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. The literary vampire first appeared in 18th-century poetry, before becoming one of the stock figures of gothic fiction with the publication of Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), which was inspired by the life and legend of Lord Byron. Later influential works include the penny dreadful Varney the Vampire (1847); Sheridan Le Fanu's tale of a lesbian vampire, Carmilla (1872), and the most well known: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). Some authors created a more "sympathetic vampire", with Varney being the first, and more recent examples such as Moto Hagio's series The Poe Clan (1972–1976) and Anne Rice's novel Interview with the Vampire (1976) proving influential.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incarceration in the United States</span> Form of punishment in United States law

Incarceration in the United States is one of the primary means of punishment for crime in the United States. In 2021, over five million people were under supervision by the criminal justice system, with nearly two million people incarcerated in state or federal prisons and local jails. The United States has the largest known prison population in the world. It has 5% of the world’s population while having 20% of the world’s incarcerated persons. China, with more than four times more inhabitants, has fewer persons in prison. Prison populations grew dramatically beginning in the 1970s, but began a decline around 2009, dropping 25% by year-end 2021.

Prison rape commonly refers to the rape of inmates in prison by other inmates or prison staff. In 2001, Human Rights Watch estimated that at least 4.3 million inmates had been raped while incarcerated in the United States. A United States Department of Justice report, Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, states that "In 2011–12, an estimated 4.0% of state and federal prison inmates and 3.2% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility, if less than 12 months." However, advocates dispute the accuracy of the numbers, saying they seem to under-report the real numbers of sexual assaults in prison, especially among juveniles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy Santiago Baca</span> American poet and educator (born 1952)

Jimmy Santiago Baca is an American poet, memoirist, and screenwriter from New Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dimitris Lyacos</span> Greek writer and playwright (born 1966)

Dimitris Lyacos is a contemporary Greek writer. He is the author of the Poena Damni trilogy. Lyacos's work is characterised by its genre-defying form and the avant-garde combination of themes from literary tradition with elements from ritual, religion, philosophy and anthropology.

<i>Asylums</i> (book) 1961 book by Erving Goffman

Asylums: Essays on the Condition of the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates is a 1961 collection of four essays by the sociologist Erving Goffman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sparagmos</span> Dionysian rite of sacrifice

Sparagmos is an act of rending, tearing apart, or mangling, usually in a Dionysian context.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinvat Bridge</span> Zoroastrian mythological location

The Chinvat Bridge or the Bridge of the Requiter in Zoroastrianism is the sifting bridge, which separates the world of the living from the world of the dead. All souls must cross the bridge upon death. The bridge is guarded by two four-eyed dogs, described in the Videvdat (Vendidad) 13,9 as 'spâna pəšu.pâna'.

Chicago Review is a student-run literary magazine founded in 1946 and published quarterly in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. The magazine features contemporary poetry, fiction, and criticism, often publishing works in translation and special features in double issues.

<i>The First Death</i> 2017 book by Dimitris Lyacos

The First Death is a book by Dimitris Lyacos. It is part of the Poena Damni trilogy. The book tells the story of a marooned man on a desert island in a sequence of fourteen poem sections, recounting his relentless struggle for survival as well as his physical and mental disintegration. The work alludes simultaneously to a modern Philoctetes, an inverted version of Crusoe as well as the myth of the dismemberment of Dionysus. The dense and nightmarish imagery of the poem, replete with sensations of hallucination, delirium, synesthesia, and putrefaction has drawn comparisons to Lautreamont, Trakl and Beckett. Despite being first in the publication history of the Poena Damni trilogy, The First Death is chronologically last in the narrative sequence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT people in prison</span> Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in prison

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people face difficulties in prison such as increased vulnerability to sexual assault, other kinds of violence, and trouble accessing necessary medical care. While much of the available data on LGBTQ inmates comes from the United States, Amnesty International maintains records of known incidents internationally in which LGBTQ prisoners and those perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender have suffered torture, ill-treatment and violence at the hands of fellow inmates as well as prison officials.

Michael N. Nagler is an American academic, nonviolence educator, mentor, meditator, and peace activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scapegoat</span> Animal which is ritually burdened

In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designated to be cast into the desert to carry away the sins of the community.

Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.

<i>Sin by Silence</i> 2009 American film

Sin by Silence is a domestic violence documentary film by Olivia Klaus that offers a unique gateway into the lives of women who are the tragedies living worst-case scenarios and survivors - women who have killed their abusive husbands. Based on the first inmate-initiated and led support group in the entire United States prison system, the film reveals the history and stories of the members of the group Convicted Women Against Abuse created by inmate Brenda Clubine in 1989. By following five women's abusive experiences that led to their incarceration, the film take viewers on their journeys from victim to survivors, reveals the history of the Battered Women Syndrome in the state of California, and shatters misconceptions. This documentary is a production of Quiet Little Place Productions.

<i>Crime After Crime</i> (film) 2011 American film

Crime After Crime is a 2011 award-winning documentary film directed by Yoav Potash about the case of Deborah Peagler, an incarcerated victim of domestic violence whose case was taken up by pro bono attorneys through The California Habeas Project.

<i>Z213: Exit</i> 2009 novel by Dimitris Lyacos

Z213: Exit is a 2009-2018 novel by Greek author Dimitris Lyacos. It is the first installment of the Poena Damni trilogy. Despite being the first of the trilogy in narrative order, the book was the third to be published in the series. The work develops as a sequence of fragmented diary entries recording the solitary experiences of an unnamed, Ulysses-like persona in the course of a train voyage gradually transformed into an inner exploration of the boundaries between self and reality. The voyage is also akin to the experience of a religious quest with a variety of biblical references, mostly from the Old Testament, being embedded into the text which is often fractured and foregoing punctuation. Most critics place Z213: Exit in a postmodern context exploring correlations with such writers as Samuel Beckett and Cormac McCarthy while others underline its modernist affinities and the work's firm foundation on classical and religious texts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfonso Gatto</span> Italian writer (1909–1976)

Alfonso Gatto was an Italian writer. Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti he is one of the foremost Italian poets of the 20th century and a major exponent of hermetic poetry.

<i>With the People from the Bridge</i> 2014 book by Dimitris Lyacos

With the People from the Bridge is the second part of the Poena Damni trilogy by Greek author Dimitris Lyacos. The book deals with the theme of loss and the return of the dead in the context of Christian teleology. The text is encased in a post-theatrical ritual drama form, drawing on various philosophical and literary sources as well as ancient and modern Greek folklore. The plot-line centers around an Orpheus-like journey of the protagonist LG who joins his deceased companion in the grave and is subsequently led by her to a liminal realm ahead of the imminent Resurrection Day. The work has been categorized by critics to belong to both the Modernist and the Post-Modernist tradition, while at the same time bearing strong affinities to a variety of canonical texts, among others Homer, Dante, Kafka, Joyce and Beckett.

The feminist pathways perspective is a feminist perspective of criminology which suggests victimization throughout the life course is a key risk factor for women's entry into offending.

Jackie Wang is an American professor, author, and poet. She is best known for her books Carceral Capitalism, which critiques the relationship between the debt economy and racialized mass incarceration, and The Sunflower Cast A Spell To Save Us From The Void, for which she was a National Book Award finalist in poetry in 2021. Her scholarship centers on the intersections of racism, liberal capitalism, surveillance technologies, and the political economy of prisons.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "From Until the Victim Becomes Our Own". Image Journal.
  2. "Entangled narratives and dionysian frenzy: An interview with dimitris lyacos - 3:AM Magazine". 18 September 2020.
  3. https://alaxon.co.il/reading/עד-שהקורבן-נעשה-שלנו/
  4. "A World to Be Repaired: A Conversation with Dimitris Lyacos, by Toti O'Brien". World Literature Today.
  5. https://revistaletrare.com/derisa-viktima-te-behet-e-jona/
  6. "An Excerpt from Until the Victim Becomes Our Own by Dimitris Lyacos, translated from the Greek by Andrew Barrett". 27 March 2023.
  7. https://www.chicagoreview.org/excerpt-from-until-the-victim-becomes-our-own/
  8. https://alaxon.co.il/reading/עד-שהקורבן-נעשה-שלנו/