Elizabeth A. Davis

The question of a settlement for national reunification in Cyprus has dominated the horizons of politics and history itself since the violent division of the island in 1974. But in the last decade, since the opening of checkpoints between north and south and the accession of Cyprus to the European Union as a divided state, a post-ethnonationalist vision of Cyprus’s future has emerged along with a vigorous, multi-vocal interrogation of its past. “The Good of Knowing” addresses that interrogation, exploring knowledge production about the division and its aftermath in the domains of forensic science, documentary film, and so-called conspiracy theory. Using ethnographic, visual, and archival methods, the book examines the dynamics of suspicion and transparency that drive this knowledge production and condition its reception. Ultimately, it shows how the search for “new” knowledge about their history of violence has come to inform Cypriots’ notions of justice, security, and democracy.