Terror and Performance

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.

‘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.

Preface i-vii Introduction: Mapping Terror in the War of Words 1-39 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: terror and performance 1. Genet in Manila: ‘September 11’ in Retrospect 40-88 I Pre-Terror Deadly Innocence Intentionality Politics of the ‘real’ Event/betrayal: rethinking the political ‘September 11’: first exposure II Discourse Genres of terror tragedy Theatre of Cruelty The terror of repetition Deconstructing terror trauma autoimmunity Controversies Stockhausen’s blunder The politics of empathy III Exit the Theatre 2. ‘Muslims’ in a Time of Terror: Deceptions, Demonization, and Uncertainties of Evidence 89-130 I Passing as a Muslim Constructing ‘Muslims’ Phenomenology of passing Queering the Muslim terrorist: beards and penises The beautiful terrorist The Sikh as Muslim II Recapitulation The Indian Muslim as Other Genocide in Godhra ‘Dead certainty’: the limits of performativity Outing the self 3. Countering Terror? The Search for Justice through Truth and Reconciliation 131-186 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 187-231 Enter Gandhi Gandhi as Truth Commission Performing the Truth Commission The performativity of salt Non-violence: sacrifice or suicide? Suicide bombing: acts of performance ‘Just War’: ambivalences and duplicities 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 232-239 Notes 240-285 Bibliography 286-300 Index

Rustom Bharucha is Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. He is a writer, director, dramaturg and cultural critic, as well as the author of several books, including Theatre and the World: Performance and the Politics of Culture (Routledge, 1993).