Edited by Shampa Bissau and Zane Zalloua
From the Introduction: “Given the events of the last decade, the topic of torture, democracy, and the human body hardly needs any justification. Yet it is its apparent obviousness that makes the topic all the more urgent. What is torture? Who defines it? What are its immediate and longterm effects on the human body, on the social body, and the poliucal bond that ties these bodies together, that is, democracy. These quesuons resist easy answers. Torture, like any other contenuous concept, has its own twisted history. In this respect, we might do well to keep in mind Friedrich Nietzsche’s observation that “only that which has no history is definable.” The challenge at hand, however, is not simply to recognize that the interpretation of torture becomes an endless task and battle of interpretive wills, something that we never define once and for all. Rather, a genealogical perspective on the subject displaces the essentialist question “What is torture?" in order to ask instead “What meaning have we given to torture?” or “What is the function and purpose of torture today?” In other words, torture as such cannot be defined in isolation but refers back to systems of belief, social networks of power, and ideological worldviews thai invariably ascribe to torture a certain meaning. The nature of that meaning is precisely what is in question in contemporary debates on torture, and the authors in this volume approach that question from diverse angles.”
Seattle. University of Washington Press. 2011. 290p.