Terror and Performance by Rustom Bharucha

by Rustom Bharucha

In this exceptional investigation, Rustom Bharucha offers a compelling, non-Eurocentric perspective on the dangerous liaisons between terror and performance. Questioning the equation of terror with terrorism, this bold text offers alternative epistemologies and narratives of terror. It draws on a vast spectrum of human cruelties relating to war, genocide, apartheid, communal and ethnic violence in India, the Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa and Palestine, among other parts of the global South.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. 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. "Terror and Performance" is a groundbreaking text, which offers a compelling new imaginary as to how a turbulent peace can be realized in our world through the embrace of ambivalence, doubt, critical thinking, and a readiness to counter violence within and against the immediacies of the here and now.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads like an annotated bibliography of what else one should be reading. Wish Bharucha had spent a bit more time developing his ideas. Still, this is an excellent primer on current debates and Bharucha's concepts (albeit under-elaborated) are both compelling and suggestive.