Using Bourdieu to understand perpetrators in The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence

Using Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary films about mass killings in Indonesia–The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014)–as an entry point, this article explores how perpetrators remember the past and how it is interpreted by them in the present in relation to this particular socio-his...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sutopo, Oki Rahadianto
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://repository.ugm.ac.id/284555/1/scopusresults%20%288%29.pdf
_version_ 1826050820652662784
author Sutopo, Oki Rahadianto
author_facet Sutopo, Oki Rahadianto
author_sort Sutopo, Oki Rahadianto
collection UGM
description Using Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary films about mass killings in Indonesia–The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014)–as an entry point, this article explores how perpetrators remember the past and how it is interpreted by them in the present in relation to this particular socio-historical context using a Bourdieusian approach. As represented in both films, perpetrators justified their killings as mechanisms of struggle; not only in order to accumulate cultural capital but also to reproduce ‘doxa’, which strengthens their dominant position in the hierarchical fields of struggle. Silence as doxa creates conditions for perpetrators to be able to maintain and re-justify their acts as heroic. In contrast, as shown in the films, victims remain stigmatized as villains in the history of Indonesia. This article also reveals the inequality of social positions influenced how perpetrators reinterpreted their memories of mass killings and how they survive as they grow older. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
first_indexed 2024-09-25T03:58:59Z
format Article
id oai:generic.eprints.org:284555
institution Universiti Gadjah Mada
language English
last_indexed 2024-09-25T03:58:59Z
publishDate 2020
record_format dspace
spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:2845552024-05-17T01:31:39Z https://repository.ugm.ac.id/284555/ Using Bourdieu to understand perpetrators in The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence Sutopo, Oki Rahadianto Social Sciences Using Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary films about mass killings in Indonesia–The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014)–as an entry point, this article explores how perpetrators remember the past and how it is interpreted by them in the present in relation to this particular socio-historical context using a Bourdieusian approach. As represented in both films, perpetrators justified their killings as mechanisms of struggle; not only in order to accumulate cultural capital but also to reproduce ‘doxa’, which strengthens their dominant position in the hierarchical fields of struggle. Silence as doxa creates conditions for perpetrators to be able to maintain and re-justify their acts as heroic. In contrast, as shown in the films, victims remain stigmatized as villains in the history of Indonesia. This article also reveals the inequality of social positions influenced how perpetrators reinterpreted their memories of mass killings and how they survive as they grow older. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. 2020 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://repository.ugm.ac.id/284555/1/scopusresults%20%288%29.pdf Sutopo, Oki Rahadianto (2020) Using Bourdieu to understand perpetrators in The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. Continuum, 34 (2). 286 – 298. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85081279652&doi=10.1080%2f10304312.2020.1737438&partnerID=40&md5=e922b0db6e661882ee68efcf7b0e1822
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Sutopo, Oki Rahadianto
Using Bourdieu to understand perpetrators in The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence
title Using Bourdieu to understand perpetrators in The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence
title_full Using Bourdieu to understand perpetrators in The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence
title_fullStr Using Bourdieu to understand perpetrators in The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence
title_full_unstemmed Using Bourdieu to understand perpetrators in The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence
title_short Using Bourdieu to understand perpetrators in The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence
title_sort using bourdieu to understand perpetrators in the act of killing and the look of silence
topic Social Sciences
url https://repository.ugm.ac.id/284555/1/scopusresults%20%288%29.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT sutopookirahadianto usingbourdieutounderstandperpetratorsintheactofkillingandthelookofsilence