Terror and Performance

‘This work goes where other books fear to tread. It reaches the parts other scholars might imagine in their dreams but would neither have the international reach nor the critical acumen and forensic flourish to deliver.’ Alan Read, King's College London ‘This book is not only timely. It is overdue – and it is a masterpiece unrivalled by any book I know of.’ Erika Fischer-Lichte, Freie Universität Berlin ‘The first and only book that focuses on the intersections of performance, terror and terrorism as played out beyond a Euro-American context post-9/11. It is an important work, both substantively and methodologically.’ Jenny Hughes, University of Manchester ‘A profound and tightly bound sequence of reflections ... a rigorously provocative book.’ Stephen Barber, Kingston University London In this exceptional investigation Rustom Bharucha considers the realities of Islamophobia, the legacies of Truth and Reconciliation, the deadly certitudes of State-controlled security systems and the legitimacy of counter-terror terrorism, drawing on a vast spectrum of human cruelties across the global South. The outcome is a brilliantly argued case for seeing terror as a volatile and mutant phenomenon that is deeply lived, experienced, and performed within the cultures of everyday life. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table ofContents Preface Introduction: mapping terror in the war of words Provocation Impulse Doublespeak of ‘terrorism’ Risks of misunderstanding Ambivalences of terror Holy Terror Terror through a literary lens Visual overkill Performance/performativity/theatre Dangerous liaisons of terror and performance 1.Genet in Manila: ‘September 11’ in retrospect I Pre-terror Deadly innocence Intentionality Politics of the ‘real’ Event and betrayal: rethinking the political ‘September 11’: first exposure II Discourse Genres of terror The terror of repetition Deconstructing terror Controversies III Exit the theatre 2.‘Muslims’ in a time of terror: deceptions, demonization, and uncertainties of evidence I Phantoms of the Muslim as terrorist Passing as a Muslim Constructing ‘Muslims’ Phenomenology of passing Queering the Muslim terrorist: beards and penises The beautiful terrorist The Sikh as Muslim II The terror of the real Recapitulation Othering Indian Muslims Genocide in Gujarat ‘Dead certainty’:the limits of performativity Outing the self 3.Countering terror? The search for justice in Truth and Reconciliation I Mapping the terrain Multiple locations, different stakes The right to intervene II Rwanda The terror of statistics Realizing the unthinkable: the provocation of gacaca Gacaca as performance: a theoretical trap? Dramaturgy of gacaca The evidence of experience Performing Rwandanicity III South Africa The ‘impossible machine’ The theatricality of hearings Amnesty in performance Between performance and justice: an ethical impasse The ‘truth’ of story-telling IV Key motifs of truth and reconciliation Performing silence Forgiveness, or ‘living with evil’? Time and reconciliation Coda 4.Performing non-violence in the age of terror Enter Gandhi Gandhi as Truth Commission Performing the Truth Commission: Gandhi in action The performativity of salt Non-violence: sacrifice or suicide? Suicide-bombing: acts of performance ‘Just war’: ambivalences andduplicities Training to die?: the viability of non-violence The violence of non-violence Lip-sewing and blood-graffiti: the weapons of the weak Towards justice? Postscript Notes Bibliography Index