Ethical Issues on Narrating and Representing Signs of Violence

Abstract:This contribution explores the relationship between signs of violence and their implications. It poses questions about how and to what extent these signs narrate stories, the effectiveness of the representation of violence through both images and narratives, and finally the relationship between bodily signs of experienced violence and justice. The starting point of the terrain for exploration can be summarized in two broad categories of inquiry, each corresponding with a section of this paper. I proceed in three steps. To begin, I focus on the representation of violence in both images and words. The first section argues that such violence can be represented in a way that promotes justice. The second extends this inquiry to the nature and ethical scope of (narrative) representation, raising some basic questions about its legitimacy and identifying one of its most important aims: the need to resist transience in order to seek justice. The third section offers a conceptual schema and some keywords that help sketch possible responses to such entangled questions.