Documenting Violations: Rhetorical Witnessing and the Spectacle of Distant Suffering

Abstract

If one of the prominent rhetorical features in human rights documentaries is to create a rhetorical space of intersubjectivity—of bearing witness—how to account for ruptures in identification? Hesford explores the documentation of rape warfare and ethnic violence as human rights violations and the ethical challenges such representations pose for us as witnesses, and as scholars, teachers, and members of the international community.