Abstract
A fixed and reductionist “image” of the perpetrator in filmed media is one with which audiences are all too familiar, whether consciously or not. This article uses perpetrator trauma theory, empathic appeals, unsettlement, and the uncanny to explore the South African television programme Truth Commission Special Report in order to illustrate the ways in which the broadcast challenged or reified the conception of perpetrators as “monsters.” This will be exemplified through an analysis of several segments from the programme as it covered the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in transitional South Africa, and particularly its amnesty hearings of apartheid era perpetrators.
Highlights
The Image of the PerpetratorReferring to the intense public scrutiny of perpetrators in modern society, Saira Mohamed asks: ‘Has this staring yielded any greater understanding?’1 The fascination with perpetrators, she asserts, has led us to place them in boxes, categorizing people as ‘cruel sadists’, ‘true believers’, or ‘pliant conformists’, and objectifying and individualizing them rather than allowing our encounter with them to provide any kind of enlightenment
This article uses perpetrator trauma theory, empathic appeals, unsettlement, and the uncanny to explore the South African television programme Truth Commission Special Report in order to illustrate the ways in which the broadcast challenged or reified the conception of perpetrators as ‘monsters’
Perpetrator trauma will act as a conceptual grounding through which to justify the need for a dynamic representation of perpetrators, in transitional or post-conflict settings
Summary
Referring to the intense public scrutiny of perpetrators in modern society, Saira Mohamed asks: ‘Has this staring yielded any greater understanding?’1 The fascination with perpetrators, she asserts, has led us to place them in boxes, categorizing people as ‘cruel sadists’, ‘true believers’, or ‘pliant conformists’, and objectifying and individualizing them rather than allowing our encounter with them to provide any kind of enlightenment This is especially problematic in documentary projects within transitional or post-conflict settings, in which a fixed image keeps the subjects – the perpetrators – stuck in the conflict, rather than allowing them to become dynamic actors in a setting of reconciliation. These insights can be theorized through perpetrator trauma, empathic unsettlement, and the uncanny
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