Revisiting Resentments: Jean Améry and the Dark Side of Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Brudholm, Thomas

doi:10.1080/14754830500519714

Cited by 26 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Likewise, is reconciliation, even when it does take place in either a "thin" or a "thick" version, always a marker of progress? Is it healthy to forgive one's former enemies, or can resentment in some cases be a more morally sound reaction, as it has been suggested recently (Brudholm 2006)? Although scenes of inter-communal un-derstanding and co-operation are emotional to observe-as I myself have felt during fieldwork in the Balkans-reconciliation can never be a normative demand from above or from the outside, as this could produce a sense of re-victimization among disadvantaged groups (Ross 2001).…”

Section: Conclusion: Researching Reconciliationmentioning

confidence: 91%

Coffee after cleansing?

Stefansson

2010

Focaal

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This article critically addresses the idea that ethnic remixing alone fosters reconciliation and tolerance after sectarian conflict, a vision that has been forcefully cultivated by international interventionists in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the town of Banja Luka, it presents a multi-faceted analysis of the effects of ethnic minority return on the (re)building of social relations across communal boundaries. Although returnees were primarily elderly Bosniacs who settled in parts of the town traditionally populated by their own ethnic group, some level of inter-ethnic co-existence and co-operation had developed between the returnees and displaced Serbs who had moved into these neighborhoods. In the absence of national reconciliation, peaceful co-existence in local everyday life was brought about by silencing sensitive political and moral questions related to the war, indicating a preparedness among parts of the population to once again share a social space with the Other.

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Section: Conclusion: Researching Reconciliationmentioning

confidence: 91%

Coffee after cleansing?

Stefansson

2010

Focaal

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“…We should not take the desirability of reconciliation for granted-either from the perspective of those who would be reconciled or even from that of a higher goal such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Euro-Atlantic Integration, or even Peace (see Brudholm 2006). However, rather than simplistically reducing differing perspectives on such issues to national sides, they must be seen in terms of possible futures too.…”

Section: The "Sides" In Reconciliationmentioning

confidence: 95%

Of wolves and men

Jansen

2010

Focaal

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This article confronts the grammar of liberal reconciliation discourses with the gendered practices of post-war encounters. After violence that is considered national, meetings between people of different nationalities, and the reconciliation of which they are seen to be a vanguard, tend to be considered as morally good in and of themselves. This article subjects such liberal reconciliation discourse to a double ethnographic intervention: first, by privileging the practice of non-elite inter-national encounters over abstract notions of reconciliation, and, second, by tracing the particular gendered subject positions of sameness that shaped and were shaped by such encounters. The article explores how, after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, men who met across former frontlines evoked "normal life" through mutual recognition of performative competence of motifs of hegemonizing masculinities.

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“…There has recently been a surge in interest in emotions within transformational moments. The affective dimensions of forgiveness, post‐atrocity trauma, shame, humiliation, and anger have been widely explored in the Transitional Justice scholarship (Govier 2002; Opotow 2002; Philpott 2006; Walker 2006a; Minkkinen 2006; Griswold 2007; Brudholm 2006, 2008). 16 Nevertheless, while this scholarship unveils some of the important emotional aspects of the transitional context, no attempt is made to rigorously show on what grounds and how these affects can be made to serve the cause of democracy.…”

Section: Democracy V Justice: Another False Dilemmamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thomas Brudholm also looks at the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission's celebration of forgiveness through the lens of Améry's account of ressentiment , and naturally, finds it wanting. The blindness towards the moral affirmation inherent in resentment makes this institution problematic (Brudholm 2006; 2008). While acknowledging these authors' effort to draw attention to the relevance and legitimacy of resentments within democratising contexts, this paper seeks to go beyond their specific interest in the limitations of truth commissions with regard to such negative emotions.…”

Section: Recovering Negative Emotions For Democracymentioning

confidence: 99%

Transitional Justice and the Quest for Democracy: A Contribution to a Political Theory of Democratic Transformations

Mihai¹

2010

Ratio Juris

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The paper seeks to contribute to the transitional justice literature by overcoming the Democracy v. Justice debate. This debate is normatively implausible and prudentially self-defeating. Normatively, transitional justice will be conceptualised as an imperative of democratic equal concern. Prudentially, it can prevent further violence and provide an opportunity for initiating processes of democratic emotional socialisation. The resentment and indignation animating transitions should be acknowledged as markers of a sense of justice. As such, they can help the reproduction of democracy. However, their public expression must be institutionally filtered through democratic norms. The consistent institutional instantiation of equal respect can educate and recuperate negative emotions for democracy.

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Revisiting Resentments: Jean Améry and the Dark Side of Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Cited by 26 publications

References 9 publications

Coffee after cleansing?

Coffee after cleansing?

Of wolves and men

Transitional Justice and the Quest for Democracy: A Contribution to a Political Theory of Democratic Transformations

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