Clair Aldington, Eva Amman, Annika Anderson, Leah Barclay, Bianca Beetson, Guido Bertagna, Charlotte Bilby, Annie Buckley, Alex Carrascosa, Lourdes Fernánde, z Emma Hughe, Leire Izaguirre García, Claudia Mazzucato, Brenda Morrison, Alberto José Olalde Altarejo, Jorge Ollero Perán, Leire Padilla, Brunilda Pali, Harold Pepinsky, Rocío Redondo Almandoz, Francisco José Ríos López, Carlos Romera, Mónica Sáenz, Vicki Saunder, Katerina Soulou, Teresa Sousa, Giulia Spada, Nicola Valentino, Tinneke Van Camp, Anneke Van Hoek, Gema Varona, Jayne Wallace, Raymond Watson, Annemieke Wolthui, Sarah Woodland, Jaseff Raziel, Yauri Miranda, Gema Varona Martínez, Mazzucato, Claudia, Bertagna, Guido, Mazzucato, Claudia (ORCID:0000-0003-4040-2664), Clair Aldington, Eva Amman, Annika Anderson, Leah Barclay, Bianca Beetson, Guido Bertagna, Charlotte Bilby, Annie Buckley, Alex Carrascosa, Lourdes Fernánde, z Emma Hughe, Leire Izaguirre García, Claudia Mazzucato, Brenda Morrison, Alberto José Olalde Altarejo, Jorge Ollero Perán, Leire Padilla, Brunilda Pali, Harold Pepinsky, Rocío Redondo Almandoz, Francisco José Ríos López, Carlos Romera, Mónica Sáenz, Vicki Saunder, Katerina Soulou, Teresa Sousa, Giulia Spada, Nicola Valentino, Tinneke Van Camp, Anneke Van Hoek, Gema Varona, Jayne Wallace, Raymond Watson, Annemieke Wolthui, Sarah Woodland, Jaseff Raziel, Yauri Miranda, Gema Varona Martínez, Mazzucato, Claudia, Bertagna, Guido, and Mazzucato, Claudia (ORCID:0000-0003-4040-2664)
The purpose of this paper is to convey the Authors’ personal experience in the use of ‘meta-narratives’—literature, poetry, cinema, music, and the arts in general—in restorative processes and to discuss the possible truth-telling mechanisms and the chances offered to reconciliation engendered—or fostered—, in restorative justice, by narration, literature and the arts. Referring to Arendt, Foucault, Ricoeur, Calvino, and other scholars and drawing several examples from cinema (Dardennes brothers), literature (Kafka), and Biblical narrative, the Authors explain how ‘meta-narratives’ can work in restorative processes as metaphors connecting meanings from one field of experience to another. During a ten-year-long reconciliation process that the Authors contributed to facilitating among Italian victims of political violence and former members of armed groups, meta-narratives have been used on multiple occasions: Literature, poetry, cinema, music, and arts helped the parties to access more rapidly and smoothly the common ground of humanity, without insisting on the long and tiring detours of analysing single historical facts. Meta-narratives have been used by facilitators as... ‘facilitators’.