The standing to forgive and the standing to be forgiven

This chapter explores two key questions: who has the standing to forgive? And who has the standing to be forgiven? Under the first, the question whether third-party forgiveness is ever possible or morally fitting is explored, the argument being that since not all third-party forgiveness is forgiveness on behalf of the victim, in at least some circumstances, third-party forgiveness is indeed possible and fitting. The discussion explores primary, secondary and tertiary victims, and the status of moral bystanders. The second question introduces whether forgiveness should be ‘conditional’ or ‘unconditional’, and if ‘unconditional’ forgiveness can be legitimate (as it is argued that it can), of what kind of unconditional forgiveness is this true? The case is put for the value of distinguishing between two types of unconditional, and two types of conditional, forgiveness. Objections that may legitimately be made against one kind of unconditional forgiveness (associated with, e.g. Derrida) are not taken to apply to the other.

The Politics of Justice and the French Blood Affair in Hélène Cixous's The Perjured City

In the article, I examine Hélène Cixous's play La Ville parjure ou le Réveil des Erinyes (The Perjured City) as a political contribution to the debate over memory and justice. The focus is on the question of how the telling of a story of atrocities may be therapeutic to both the victim and to society. I stress Cixous's alternative way of addressing justice: through forgiveness instead of criminal prosecution or other forms of retribution or reconciliation. Referring to Jacques Derrida's work, the main argument revolves around the question of whether forgiveness for unspeakable crimes should be unconditional or conditional. Instead of seeing Cixous's play as an unequivocal stance on restorative justice in general, and on conditional forgiveness in particular, I stress that the main protagonist, the Mother, is not willing to forgive the crime itself because of its unforgivable nature.