“When you are living a war – its extremes of noise and smells and chaos, the faces of the human beings in every state of life and death and fear and pain – you cannot get away from it.” The above fragment of Romeo Dallaire’s book Waiting for First Light. My Ongoing Battle with PTSD draws attention to probably the most important aspect of post-war reconstruction – coming to terms with the feelings of loss and trauma.
The presentation, prepared on the basis of a case study – work on Polish and Ukrainian translation of the above mentioned recollections by Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, commander of UN forces in Rwanda during the genocide which took place in that country at the end of 20th century – will be devoted to reflection about the role of a literary works and their translations in rising awareness of psychological consequences of military conflicts and healing the wound of war.
Magdalena Paluszkiewicz-Misiaczek – associate professor working at the Chair of Canadian Studies at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora of the Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland. Her main areas of interest are connected with social history of Canada and the USA and include the following: history of women with a particular emphasis on women’s organizations as well as social and charitable work; Indigenous Peoples – the forms and manifestations of their self-government; veterans of peacekeeping and peacemaking missions and changing approach to psychological consequences of war and intergenerational trauma transmission.
