Remediating Protest Blog

Blog Post 3

With text taken from real verdicts of the Russian courts between 2010 and 2017, Verdict, a series of poems by Lida Yusupova, makes a document of both the horrific crime committed and the emotional response of those appalled by the verdict given. In one of her pieces titled "he took a wooden stick / and thrust it with force / into her vagina", Yusupova uses repetition in order to capture the magnitude of this loss of live and loss of justice as a result of the claim in the sentencing that "the vagina is not a vital organ" (Yusupova 137). That line is the first to be repeated continuously with such vehemence. As it continues to jut into repeated descriptions of the graphic crime against the victim, Yusupova seems to use that line as a piece of dialogue. The horrific details and the dismissive statement go back and forth, fighting over what is the truth of the situation.

The destructive and overwhelming effect of this repetition on the reader, as the reader becomes a witness to the atrocity, illustrates Freud's "death drive" as discussed in "Archive Fever" by Jacques Derrida. Key to the death drive is the theory that we repeat destructive behaviors rather than processing them. In this way, the death drive prohibits the creation of memory and leads to the "[destruction of] the archive" (Derrida 78). Putting the idea of the death drive in tension with a physical document, Yusupova creates a confused sense of archive. By repeating such potent lines from the trial, Yusupova mimics the thought process of those so deeply affected by the outcome of this verdict. The reader is forced into a death drive that may or may not be closely connected to them but is still reflective of the world around them. But at the same time, Yusupova documents this repetition in the collection of poetry. In what feels like an attempt to express the vast wrong of everything that is surrounding this trial, such as the crime itself and the sentencing, the muddling of archive and destruction provides an experience for the reader which shows the extreme turmoil of the moment. 

The repetition moves on beyond the line mentioned as Yusupova seemingly changes tactics. The astonishment at the sentencing, the emotional shock, all of it is expressed in the earlier lines before Yusupova moves to express the absence and loss that the death in this case has caused. In repeating "the death of the victim", she perhaps shows the vast amount of physical space of the loss (Yusopova 151). The line is first repeated over and over on a single page before moving to a series of pages with only one repetition on each. The rest of the page is left blank. The physical space is a document of the emotional hollow left by the death, and by the dismissive nature of the sentencing as well. Eventually, Yusopova switches back to repeating "the vagina is not a vital organ" before closing with the judge's name. The switch almost signals that even a more physical representation of the pain caused is not really achievable, returning to the dismissal in the sentencing. Closing with the judge's name rather than the perpetrator's points the blame in a clear direction.

Ultimately, what the collection of poems seems to document is the fact that it is truly impossible to fully document the feeling of loss and anger that both the crime and the sentencing has caused. Though seemingly warring forces, Freud's death drive and the archival impulse unite in Verdicts in such a way to document the emotional truth of the moment.

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  1. One of the readings for this topic I was most impressed by was also Lida Yusupova's "Verdict" series. In your blog post, you skillfully analyze the poet's use of repetition to convey the emotional impact of a horrific crime and the subsequent dismissive sentencing by the court. By connecting this repetition to Freud's concept of the "death drive" and Derrida's discussion of "archive fever," you highlight the complex interplay between the destructive nature of repetition and the impulse to document and preserve. Your interpretation of the physical space on the page as a representation of the emotional void left by the victim's death and the court's attitude is particularly insightful. I think your post captures well the emotional reality of the situation by creating a conflict between the desire to document and the compulsion to repeat traumatic events.

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