摘要：Until relatively recently, the appropriateness of using victim testimony as a source for studying and understanding the episodes of mass violence that punctuated the twentieth century proved deeply controversial. It inspired and continues to inspire methodological and epistemological debates among scholars across the social sciences and humanities, including historians, legal scholars, anthropologists, sociologists, and literary scholars. Important differences exist across the disciplines, and even among scholars within the same discipline, about the notion of what constitutes testimony, in general; the status of victim testimony, in particular; and the functions it can be made to serve in elucidating crimes against humanity, crimes of war, or genocides. This special issue of Études arméniennes contemporaines takes as its starting point a questioning of the attitudes and practices of historians who are, by definition, experts in the interpretation of documents in their capacity to bear witness to the past. Yet historians are not the only ones to confront the specific category of sources that is victim testimony about mass violence. For that reason, the articles, interviews, and essays that compose this special issue explore different approaches to the topic among historians but also among scholars in the humanities and social sciences, as well as in the legal field. The issue has pertinence for scholars working on any case studies of mass violence.
其他摘要：This text is an introduction to the theme issue of Études arméniennes contemporaines on “Victim Testimony and Understanding Mass Violence”.
关键词：violences de masse; Première Guerre mondiale; génocide; témoignage; témoin; historiographie de la Shoah; littérature de la Shoah; historiographie du génocide arménien; Seconde Guerre mondiale
其他关键词：mass violence; genocide; testimony; witness; historiography of the Shoah; Holocaust literature; historiography of the Armenian genocide; First World War; Second World War
