Questions of Violence

In facing questions of past and present violence, the concepts of victim, survivor, and perpetrator have played a crucial role in the politics of memory and in notions of justice. These terms have strong emotional appeal, and they have become mired in a wide range of political projects, including sentimental politics or a politics that expropriates the pain of others.

The concepts of victim, survivor, and perpetrator have played a central role in feminist practice and discourse as well. Should feminists embrace the concepts of victim or survivor, or are these terms irrecoverably embedded in a devaluation of human agency? Does acknowledging one’s own vulnerability promise the possibility of an ethical respect for the vulnerability of others, or do experiences of harm lead to an impulse toward retributive violence? Can victims become healed and made “whole”, or does this approach overlook the complexities of gender, sexuality, and subjectivity?
In her book review essay, Senior Researcher Robin May Schott (Holocaust and genocide) discusses recent feminist theories of violence that contribute to developing a new critical approach to these concepts.

Hypatia, Vol. 27, no. 4 (Fall 2012), pp. 929-935.