REMEMBERING SRI LANKA'S SOUTHERN TERROR Narratives of Torture Survivor

This essay explores the ways in which torture is remembered, articulated, and given meaning by those who have survived its experience. It does so by analysing the memories and narratives of suspected insurgents who were tortured by the Sri Lankan state during the Terror (Bheeshanaya) of the late 1980s. In recent years, some scholars have tended to construe torture as inexpressible, as an intensely individual experience, and as being devoid of meaning. This essay argues that while torture is difficult to communicate, it is not entirely inexpressible. Torture survivors draw on a range of alternative means of communication, and on narrative devices such as the body and emotion, to mediate and express their experiences of torture. A central argument is that torture carries meaning to its survivors. Torture is remembered overwhelmingly in collective and ethical terms, and is rooted firmly in intimate social worlds.