Social violence, its functions and what lies in-between: What do Dostoevsky and Süskind have to say about peace?

Abstract

The present work is guided by the logic of social and political 'fracturing', which posits that shifting our habitual perceptions permits us to move beyond structural reproductions and to acquire new mindsets and behaviours. Adjacent to peace studies terminology, 'fracturing' is applied to the violent novels of Patrick Süskind's Perfume and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

Notably, this article demonstrates that studying peace through creative and fictional resources can be as insightful as analysing real-life events. In brief, literature renders violence in social processes explicit, whereby it indirectly instructs us with expedient practices for peace.

More concretely, the study of fictional cases invites us to critically reflect on our own understanding and enactment of social violence, which can simultaneously accommodate and be accommodated in the reproduction of systemic injustices. This owes to literature's potential to incite processes of 'fracturing' and channel our imagination into ameliorating our learned social customs and structures.