The Meta-logic of Pain in Storytelling: Comparing Diop and Sontag Miranda Pederson College

At a glance, Boubacar Boris Diop’s Murambi, the Book of Bones and Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others might not seem to have much in common. Diop’s work recounts the Rwandan genocide through multiple perspectives and storytelling/fiction while Sontag dissects the moral and ethical issues of addressing another person’s pain or trauma using real world examples. However, when these two pieces are put into conversation with each other, they reveal that they are quite similar in the way they approach addressing the pain of others. With Diop put into the context and looked at through the scope of Sontag, it becomes clear that there are deliberate stylistic and narrative choices present in the novel that relate to Sontag. Similarly, with Sontag put into the context of Diop, it becomes evident that the issues she discusses echo that of narratives and storytelling. With Diop and Sontag in conversation with each other, the two pieces make a case about how “meta” storytelling as well as the logic behind it really is.

Firstly, the title alone of Murambi, the Book of Bones is incredibly self-aware. The title refers to the work as a book, drawing the reader’s attention to this fact and perhaps even calling itself out on simply being...