Guilt - A Force of Cultural Transformation

Since the end of the 20th century, social movements around the world have called for accountability and reparation for past harms, particularly harms committed by states against various minority groups. This volume argues that guilt is a productive force that helps to balance unequal power dynamics between individuals and groups. With chapters bridging the social sciences, law, and humanities, chapter authors examine the role and function of guilt in society and present case studies from seven national contexts.

List of contents

• Introduction


• Matthias Buschmeier and Katharina von Kellenbach


• Part I: Guilt as a Prosocial Force in Interpersonal Relations


• Guilt as a Positive Motivation for Action? On Vicarious Penance in the History of Christianity


• Meinolf Schumacher


• White Guilt in the Summer of Black Lives Matter


• Lisa B. Spanierman


• From Shame to Guilt: Indonesian Strategies against Child Marriage


• Nelly van Doorn-Harder


• Historical and Survivor Guilt in the Incorporation of Refugees in Germany


• John Borneman


• Part II: Transforming Guilt Into (Restorative) Justice


• The Productivity of Guilt in Criminal Law Discourses


• Klaus Günther


• Making Guilt Productive: The Case for Restorative Justice in Criminal Law


• Valerij Zisman


• Guilt With and Without Punishment: On Moral and Legal Guilt in Contexts of Impunity


• Dominik Hofmann


• Post-War Justice for the Nazi Murders of Patients in Kherson, Ukraine: Comparing German and Soviet Trials


• Tanja Penter


• Part III: Guilt as Creative Irritation


• Rituals of Repentance: Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Act of Killing"


• Katharina von Kellenbach


• Performing Guilt: How the Theater of the 1960s Challenged German Memory Culture


• Saskia Fischer


• Guilty Dreams: Culpability and Reactionary Violence in Gujarat


• Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi


• The Guilt of Warriors


• Susan Derwin


• Part IV: The Politics of Guilt Negotiations


• The Art of Apology: On the True and the Phony in Political Apology


• Maria-Sibylla Lotter


• Relationships in Transition: Negotiating Accountability and Productive Guilt in Timor Leste


• Victor Igreja


• Negotiating Germany's War Guilt. On the Emergence of a New International Law in the First World War


• Ethel Matala de Mazza


• The Absence of Productive Guilt in Shame and Disgrace: Misconceptions in and of German Memory Culture from 1945-2020


• Matthias Buschmeier

About the author

Katharina von Kellenbach is Professor emerita of Religious Studies at St. Mary's College of Maryland and project coordinator at the Evangelische Akademie zu Berlin. She is the author of Anti-Judaism in Feminist Religious Writings, The Mark of Cain: Guilt and Denial in the Lives of Nazi Perpetrators, and Composting Guilt: The Purification of Memory after Atrocity.

Matthias Buschmeier is an Associate Professor (Akademischer Oberrat) of German Literature at Bielefeld University, Germany. He has published widely on German and European Literature and the History of Knowledge from the 18th to 20th centuries. His areas of research include the relation between literature and politics, cultural theory, hermeneutics and pragmatism, philology, the historiography of world literature, and discourses of knowledge.

Summary

Across the globe guilt has become a contentious issue in discussions over historical accountability and reparation for past injustices. Guilt has become political, and it assumes a highly visible place in the public sphere and academic debate in fields ranging from cultural memory, to transitional justice, post-colonialism, Africana studies, and the study of populist extremism.

This volume argues that guilt is a productive force that helps to balance unequal power dynamics between individuals and groups. Moreover, guilt can also be an ambivalent force affecting social cohesion, moral revolutions, political negotiation, artistic creativity, legal innovation, and other forms of transformations. With chapters bridging the social sciences, law, and humanities, chapter authors examine the role and function of guilt in society and present case studies from seven national contexts. The book approaches guilt as a generative and enduring presence in societies and cultures rather than as an oppressive and destructive burden that necessitates quick release and liberation. It also considers guilt as something that legitimates the future infliction of violence. Finally, it examines the conditions under which guilt promotes transformation, repair, and renewal of relationships.

Additional text

How can we not only recognize, but also recover from, the atrocities of the past? Drawing on a global range of recent case studies, this book offers a kaleidoscopic, thought-provoking dive into new research on guilt in the aftermath of collective violence and confirms that penance can be productive. Mediated through religion, law, and politics, as well as film, literature, and theatre, guilt as a shared sense of moral responsibility can lead societies towards reconciliation

Product details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 28.02.2022
• EAN: 9780197557440
• ISBN: 978-0-19-755744-0
• No. of pages: 376
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; PSYCHOLOGY / Emotions, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Military Science, Warfare & defence, Political science & theory, Warfare and defence, Political science and theory