Recovering the archive and finding forgiveness in park’s the truth commissioner

Abstract

In her article “Recovering the Archive and Finding Forgiveness in Park’s The Truth Commissioner,” the author utilizes Jacque Derrida’s theories about the function of archivization and the “impossible madness” of pure forgiveness to examine how these issues are addressed in post peace process Troubles fiction, focusing specifically on David Park’s 2008 novel The Truth Commissioner. Park’s text provides a particularly relevant example of the tension that Derrida outlines between the need for an unconditional, pure, and “hyperbolic” forgiveness and the conditional, judicial forgiveness that he associates with the truth recovery process.