The voice of dignity in Noemi Jaffe's O que os cegos estão sonhando?

Abstract

This article examines Noemi Jaffe's O que os cegos estão sonhando? (2014) in order to discuss how one of the main responsibilities of literary criticism, in the context of the relation between literature and Human Rights, is not just to contribute to the elaboration and application of these rights, but also to contribute to an account of all that might concern a dimension of human dignity. Aware that dignity is a controversial concept in the realm of Human Rights, I suggest to debate here, not so much how literature can help us define what dignity is – a common perspective in literary criticism in its connection to Human Rights – , but how it might contribute to the idea that the very impossibility of defining dignity might be a good premise to defend Human Rights in the first place.