Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Introduction: symbolic action in theory and practice: the cultural pragmatics of symbolic action
- 1 Cultural pragmatics: social performance between ritual and strategy
- 2 From the depths of despair: performance, counterperformance, and “September 11”
- 3 The cultural pragmatics of event-ness: the Clinton / Lewinsky affair
- 4 Social dramas, shipwrecks, and cockfights: conflict and complicity in social performance
- 5 Performing a “new” nation: the role of the TRC in South Africa
- 6 Performing opposition or, how social movements move
- 7 Politics as theatre: an alternative view of the rationalities of power
- 8 Symbols in action: Willy Brandt's kneefall at the Warsaw Memorial
- 9 The promise of performance and the problem of order
- 10 Performance art
- 11 Performing the sacred: a Durkheimian perspective on the performative turn in the social sciences
- Index
- Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
- References
5 - Performing a “new” nation: the role of the TRC in South Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Introduction: symbolic action in theory and practice: the cultural pragmatics of symbolic action
- 1 Cultural pragmatics: social performance between ritual and strategy
- 2 From the depths of despair: performance, counterperformance, and “September 11”
- 3 The cultural pragmatics of event-ness: the Clinton / Lewinsky affair
- 4 Social dramas, shipwrecks, and cockfights: conflict and complicity in social performance
- 5 Performing a “new” nation: the role of the TRC in South Africa
- 6 Performing opposition or, how social movements move
- 7 Politics as theatre: an alternative view of the rationalities of power
- 8 Symbols in action: Willy Brandt's kneefall at the Warsaw Memorial
- 9 The promise of performance and the problem of order
- 10 Performance art
- 11 Performing the sacred: a Durkheimian perspective on the performative turn in the social sciences
- Index
- Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
- References
Summary
Introduction
This chapter examines the case of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as an example of a modern ritual of performance that has played a critical role in the transition from Apartheid to democracy. While many observers have characterized the TRC as a legal tool to facilitate political transformation and some have criticized it for failing to provide adequate forms of justice, such approaches miss a significant aspect of the TRC and its impact on South African society. Rather, if we apply a model of social drama, this theoretical perspective allows us to focus on how the TRC testimonies helped to frame Apartheid as a “cultural trauma” (Alexander 2002, 2004; Eyerman 2001, 2004; Giesen 2004) that required acknowledgment and demanded repair. Moreover, the social drama model reveals the way in which the TRC opened a space for the creation of a new national identity, one which rested on a recognition of bonds of solidarity. In this chapter, I will show that the TRC is an unusual case of cultural performance because it is one that referred to and inspired universal rather than exclusive group affirming principles. And, I will argue that it was a successful performance in that it offered not only a catharsis, but also a pathway to new definitions of belonging and was therefore transformative.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Social PerformanceSymbolic Action, Cultural Pragmatics, and Ritual, pp. 169 - 192Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
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