Topic
Torture
About: Torture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8173 publications have been published within this topic receiving 109895 citations.
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Book•
15 May 2006
TL;DR: The authors examines the complex and paradoxical character of American public discourse since that September morning, considering the ways the event has been aestheticized, exploited, and appropriated, while "Ground Zero" remains the contested site of an effort at adequate commemoration.
Abstract: After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a general sense that the world was different - that nothing would ever be the same - settled upon a grieving nation; and the events of that day were received as cataclysmic disruptions of an ordered world. Refuting this claim, David Simpson examines the complex and paradoxical character of American public discourse since that September morning, considering the ways the event has been aestheticized, exploited, and appropriated, while "Ground Zero" remains the contested site of an effort at adequate commemoration. In 9/11, Simpson argues that elements of the conventional culture of mourning and remembrance - grieving the dead, summarizing their lives in obituaries, and erecting monuments in their memory - have been co-opted for political advantage. He also confronts those who labeled the event an "apocalypse," condemning their exploitation of 9/11 for the defense of torture and war. In four elegant chapters - two of which expand on essays originally published in the "London Review of Books" to great acclaim - Simpson analyzes the response to 9/11: the nationally syndicated "Portraits of Grief" obituaries in the "New York Times"; the debates over the rebuilding of the World Trade Center towers and the memorial design; the representation of American and Iraqi dead after the invasion of March 2003, along with the worldwide circulation of the Abu Ghraib torture photographs; and the urgent and largely ignored critique of homeland rhetoric from the domain of critical theory. Calling for a sustained cultural and theoretical analysis, "9/11" is the first book of its kind to consider the events of that tragic day with a perspective so firmly grounded in the humanities and so persuasive about the contribution they can make to our understanding of its consequences.
113 citations
Book•
19 Dec 2006
TL;DR: The author examines terrorism as Predictable Backfire, the role of whistleblowers, and the design of torture chambers in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.
Abstract: Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Sharpeville Chapter 3 Dili Chapter 4 Dharasana Chapter 5 The Beating of Rodney King Chapter 6 Target: Whistleblowers Chapter 7 The Dismissal of Ted Steele Chapter 8 Environmental Disasters Chapter 9 The Invasion of Iraq Chapter 10 Abu Ghraib Chapter 11 Countershock: Challenging Pushbutton Torture Chapter 12 Terrorism as Predictable Backfire Chapter 13 Theory and Backfire Chapter 14 Conclusion
112 citations
TL;DR: Torture can be understood as part of a geopolitical response to a discursively inflated threat as discussed by the authors, specifically to the topological presuppositions of the forms of power/knowledge that Foucault and others have argued are central to modern social orders.
Abstract: Torture can be understood as part of a geopolitical response to a discursively inflated threat. Public discussions of torture in the United States between 11 September 2001 and the May 2004 revelations of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison cautiously justified brutal interrogation methods by couching the threat of terrorism in the language of the ticking-bomb scenario. Terrorist acts constitute a real threat to material security, specifically to the “topological” presuppositions of the forms of power/knowledge that Foucault and others have argued are central to modern social orders. Techniques of biopower and governmentality can only operate effectively if “normally empowered” biopolitical subjects allow populations and governing authorities to orient their governing and self-governing activities according to “mappable landscapes of expectation.” The threat of terrorism, especially in the person of the suicide bomber, renders landscapes of expectation more difficult to map, at least locally. The ticking...
112 citations
TL;DR: It is hoped that increasing recognition of political violence and man-made violence as being of major public health concern will play a part in promoting a more peaceful world.
111 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1993
TL;DR: In this article, through interviews with 100 elderly Armenians, Donald and Lorna Miller give the "forgotten genocide" the hearing it deserves, enriching their narrative with insights drawn from historical documents, psychological theory, ethics and religious studies.
Abstract: Between 1915 and 1923, over one million Armenians died, victims of a genocidal campaign that is still denied by the Turkish government. Thousands of other Armenians suffered torture, brutality, deportation - yet their story has received scant attention. Now, through interviews with 100 elderly Armenians, Donald and Lorna Miller give the "forgotten genocide" the hearing it deserves. Interviewees describe the break-up of villages, forced marches, the death of family members, the sympathy of some Turks, and postwar life in orphanages. The Millers enrich their narrative with insights drawn from historical documents, psychological theory, ethics and religious studies.
110 citations