ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book concerns the different relationships that Cambodian communities are invited into with memories of political violence under the aegis of transitional justice and beyond. It illustrates how Cambodian communities actively renegotiate a more varied set of relationships to memories of atrocity – and the techniques of memory transitional justice relies on to shape them – than such representations seem to accommodate. The book presents the value of the concept of discourse is indebted to the work of Michel Foucault, whose thinking informs much of the analysis. It sketches the way of transitional justice interventions – in their reach and in their detail – invite Cambodian communities into specific relationships with memories of atrocity, foreclosing different ways of remembering violence just as others are enabled. The book talks about the relationships that people are asked to establish with memories of political violence.
