On the Definition of the Perpetrator: From the Twentieth to the Twenty-First Century

Post-World War II Holocaust studies, followed by genocide, trauma, and postcolonial studies, set the triangulation of perpetrator, victim, and bystander at the heart of their discussion of both the ethical legacy of the Holocaust and the aftermath of other twentieth-century catastrophes. Aiming at t...

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Main Author:	Raya Morag
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Winchester University Press 2018-12-01
Series:	Journal of Perpetrator Research
Online Access:	https://jpr.winchesteruniversitypress.org/articles/19

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spelling	doaj-bedaa673de234f26b2f4567a6ea293392020-11-25T03:10:02ZengWinchester University PressJournal of Perpetrator Research2514-78972018-12-0121131910.21039/jpr.2.1.1915On the Definition of the Perpetrator: From the Twentieth to the Twenty-First CenturyRaya Morag0The Hebrew UniversityPost-World War II Holocaust studies, followed by genocide, trauma, and postcolonial studies, set the triangulation of perpetrator, victim, and bystander at the heart of their discussion of both the ethical legacy of the Holocaust and the aftermath of other twentieth-century catastrophes. Aiming at the constitution of an appropriate instrument to deal with transitional justice issues, during the 1990s the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) interwove these subject positions, thereby attesting to a major transformation in post-genocide reconciliation processes, though not altering their basic foundation. Other theorizations, especially of the perpetrator, for example, expanded the scale of sociological characterization of the triangulation or confronted its call for interpellation and identification (most prominently in the fields of criminology and literature, respectively), but further reflected the same triadic foundation. The exploratory opposition between subject position and action provoked by Gudehus in his ‘Some Remarks on the Label, Field, and Heuristics of Perpetrator Research’ (in this issue) follows the twentieth century’s legacy as well. Undoubtedly, opposing epistemology (subject position) and ontology (the action-able), as his essay suggests, contributes to our renewed efforts to comprehend perpetratorhood, recently kindled by the initiation of the Journal of Perpetrator Research and its pioneering editorial. However, I suggest that while adhering to the twentieth-century legacies – from Hilberg’s triad to Primo Levi’s ‘Gray Zone’ – it is necessary to comprehend perpetratorhood in light of the shift from the victim era, defined as such by the seminal works of Felman and Laub and particularly Wieviorka, to the perpetrator era.https://jpr.winchesteruniversitypress.org/articles/19
collection	DOAJ
language	English
format	Article
sources	DOAJ
author	Raya Morag
spellingShingle	Raya Morag On the Definition of the Perpetrator: From the Twentieth to the Twenty-First Century Journal of Perpetrator Research
author_facet	Raya Morag
author_sort	Raya Morag
title	On the Definition of the Perpetrator: From the Twentieth to the Twenty-First Century
title_short	On the Definition of the Perpetrator: From the Twentieth to the Twenty-First Century
title_full	On the Definition of the Perpetrator: From the Twentieth to the Twenty-First Century
title_fullStr	On the Definition of the Perpetrator: From the Twentieth to the Twenty-First Century
title_full_unstemmed	On the Definition of the Perpetrator: From the Twentieth to the Twenty-First Century
title_sort	on the definition of the perpetrator: from the twentieth to the twenty-first century
publisher	Winchester University Press
series	Journal of Perpetrator Research
issn	2514-7897
publishDate	2018-12-01
description	Post-World War II Holocaust studies, followed by genocide, trauma, and postcolonial studies, set the triangulation of perpetrator, victim, and bystander at the heart of their discussion of both the ethical legacy of the Holocaust and the aftermath of other twentieth-century catastrophes. Aiming at the constitution of an appropriate instrument to deal with transitional justice issues, during the 1990s the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) interwove these subject positions, thereby attesting to a major transformation in post-genocide reconciliation processes, though not altering their basic foundation. Other theorizations, especially of the perpetrator, for example, expanded the scale of sociological characterization of the triangulation or confronted its call for interpellation and identification (most prominently in the fields of criminology and literature, respectively), but further reflected the same triadic foundation. The exploratory opposition between subject position and action provoked by Gudehus in his ‘Some Remarks on the Label, Field, and Heuristics of Perpetrator Research’ (in this issue) follows the twentieth century’s legacy as well. Undoubtedly, opposing epistemology (subject position) and ontology (the action-able), as his essay suggests, contributes to our renewed efforts to comprehend perpetratorhood, recently kindled by the initiation of the Journal of Perpetrator Research and its pioneering editorial. However, I suggest that while adhering to the twentieth-century legacies – from Hilberg’s triad to Primo Levi’s ‘Gray Zone’ – it is necessary to comprehend perpetratorhood in light of the shift from the victim era, defined as such by the seminal works of Felman and Laub and particularly Wieviorka, to the perpetrator era.
url	https://jpr.winchesteruniversitypress.org/articles/19
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On the Definition of the Perpetrator: From the Twentieth to the Twenty-First Century

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