Doing (bad) things with words. The discursive amplification of violence

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between violence and its representations, showing how, in some situations, the two can be closely intertwined, to the point of blurring the boundaries between narrative and reality. To support this idea, we will refer to some classic notions used in the study of the discourse-violence nexus. One is that of “moral panic”, as it emerged in English cultural studies and particularly in the work of Stanley Cohen (1972). The other is that of a “culture of terror”, introduced by Michael Taussig (1984) in relation to the history of colonial violence in the Putumayo region. We will also refer to anthropological studies of violence that compare terrorism or political violence and witchcraft in terms of how they rely on a sense of hidden threat that suggests and justifies a violent response. Yet terror, even in its most
centralised forms, corresponds not only to top-down manipulation but also to a “gamble” on discursive micro-interactions over which one can never have total control: the elusive, informal, culturally intimate circulation of stories, rumours, gossip within a given social context.