Structural Violence, the Stranger - Prisoner of Genocidal War

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: January 11, 2000
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Opaque water color by jeanne. Permission to use on personal Web pages. Acknowledgment requested. Copyrighted image. Please request permission for any other use. E-mail jeanne.

The painting was inspired by a photograph of Muslim prisoners in a National Geographic issue. Sorry, but I don't remember which one, but in the last year, probably. You'll note that I identified the photograph on the painting itself.

The concept of structural violence came to mind, and the face of the prisoner I translated into the portrait symbolized for me the stranger, the Other, in the structural violence of our fear of the Other. During the Spring of 2000 we will explore this concept in Love 1A, in which we will consider a number of social, psychological, and philosophical approaches to non-violent responses to this fear of the Other as it is embedded in our institutions. See especially Julia Kristeva's Strangers to Ourselves, Columbia University Press, 1991.