Seeing Violence: War in the Eye of the Beholder

Dr Adriana Zaharijević | Assistant Professor, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade 

4th October | 5.30pm - 7.00pm | Pavilion Parade, G7 (TBC) 

This lecture explores what happens with our critical capacities when we are faced with the images of war and images of horror. What happens to reason when confronted with an image which perhaps surpasses the powers of explanation or reconciliation? Do those frames of horror – which in various ways re-present violence – exercise a certain violence over us? What is the scope and power of critique when confronted with images of violence and images exercising violence? The lecture will try to offer answers to these questions, paying special attention to the role of affects in the creation of critical numbness. However, the key issue I address is: what – if anything – propels us to act out of violence against violence? The lecture suggests the possibility of advocating for non-violence in a consciously critical way and as an effect of exposure to violence. It draws on images and debates during the wars following the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Adriana Zaharijević  graduated in philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. She obtained her PhD at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, combining political philosophy, feminist theory and social history of the 19th century. In 2013 Zaharijević became a researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, and in 2016 assistant professor at the University of Novi Sad. She is the author of more than sixty articles and two books – Postajanje ženom (Becoming Woman 2010) and Ko je pojedinac? (Who is an Individual? Genealogical Inquiry into the Idea of a Citizen, 2014). Her present theoretical interests lie in the field of critical engagement.