Across the globe guilt has become a contentious issue in discussions over historical accountability and reparation for past injustices. Guilt has become political, and it assumes a highly visible place in the public sphere and academic debate in fields ranging from cultural memory, to transitional justice, post-colonialism, Africana studies, and the study of populist extremism.
This volume argues that guilt is a productive force that helps to balance unequal power dynamics between individuals and groups. Moreover, guilt can also be an ambivalent force affecting social cohesion, moral revolutions, political negotiation, artistic creativity, legal innovation, and other forms of transformations. With chapters bridging the social sciences, law, and humanities, chapter authors examine the role and function of guilt in society and present case studies from seven national contexts. The book approaches guilt as a generative and enduring presence in societies and cultures rather than as an oppressive and destructive burden that necessitates quick release and liberation. It also considers guilt as something that legitimates the future infliction of violence. Finally, it examines the conditions under which guilt promotes transformation, repair, and renewal of relationships.
Author(s): Katharina von Kellenbach, Matthias Buschmeier
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 375
City: New York
Cover
Guilt
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Introduction: Guilt as a Force of Cultural Transformation
1. Guilt as a Positive Motivation for Action? On Vicarious Penance in the History of Christianity
2. White Guilt in the Summer of Black Lives Matter
3. From Shame to Guilt: Indonesian Strategies against Child Marriage
4. Historical and Survivor Guilt in the Incorporation of Refugees in Germany
5. The Productivity of Guilt in Criminal Law Discourse
6. Making Guilt Productive: The Case for Restorative Justice in Criminal Law
7. Guilt with and without Punishment: On Moral and Legal Guilt in Contexts of Impunity
8. Post-War Justice for the Nazi Murders of Patients in Kherson, Ukraine: Comparing German and Soviet Trials
9. Rituals of Repentance: Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing
10. Performing Guilt: How the Theater of the 1960s Challenged German Memory Culture
11. Guilty Dreams: Culpability and Reactionary Violence in Gujarat
12. The Guilt of Warriors
13. The Art of Apology: On the True and the Phony in Political Apology
14. Relationships in Transition: Negotiating Accountability and Productive Guilt in Timor-Leste
15. Disputes over Germany’s War Guilt: On the Emergence of a New International Law in World War I
16. The Absence of Productive Guilt in Shame and Disgrace: Misconceptions in and of German Memory Culture from 1945 to 2020
Index
