The Phenomenology of Redemptive Violence. Issue 4 (November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Beaumont, Thomas E.
• Is Part Of: Alternatives. Volume 45:Issue 4(2020)
• Page Start: 184
• Page End: 199
• Publication Date: 2020-11
• Subjects: phenomenology -- redemption -- violence -- identity -- memorial; Globalization -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; Sociology -- Periodicals; 306.2
• DOI: 10.1177/0304375421999175
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0304-3754

Abstract

When we occupy the spaces of war memorials, we respond with certain bodily comportments that relay the "truth" of those killed by war violence. Through a phenomenological examination of embodied responses to two war memorials, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, I argue that social institutions employ bodies as a means of legitimizing a violence that is seen as redemptive. More specifically, I demonstrate how the redemptive quality of certain types of violence is an assumption replicated in social practices where individuals have learned the particular bodily skills of discourses surrounding redemptive violence.