Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents situated analyses that are attentive to the broader social, political and cultural contexts in which violence occurs. This approach enables us to consider gendered violence in conflict and non-conflict settings. The book utilizes oral history to follow the arc of East Timorese women’s narratives of gendered violence during the Indonesian occupation of that territory, as well as to reflect upon trauma, ongoing fears of retribution, the distance of time, and the politics of memory in post-conflict societies. Again, with gender at the centre of her analysis, Lia Kent has examined the intersections between gender, violence and social suffering in post-conflict Timor-Leste. The book considers just over one hundred years of historical and contemporary experiences of gendered violence.