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Terrorism and visibility in Algeria’s ‘black decade’: Des hommes et des dieux (2010)

Abstract

This article addresses the audio-visual representation of the victims of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism in Algeria in the 1990s, drawing on both historical and testimonial sources before examining Xavier Beauvois’s Des hommes et des dieux (2010). Based on a true story – the abduction and murder of a group of ex-colonial French monks– it offers a useful platform on which to interrogate the interactions of the representational and the political in relation to terrorism. Critical accounts of contemporary terrorism suggest that there has been a shift in focus from governments and terrorist organisations to an apprehension of the individual victim. However, examinations of the audio-visual can inform terrorism studies, pointing towards representational and socio-political occlusions by illuminating an implicit hierarchy of visibility. Certain lives, generally Western and Christian, are visible and mourned publicly when lost, while others, in this case Algerian, remain without an image.

Acceptance Date May 27, 2015
Publication Date Feb 1, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal French Cultural Studies
Print ISSN 0957-1558
Publisher SAGE Publications
Pages 62-72
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0957155815602158
Keywords Algeria, Xavier Beauvois, Judith Butler, film, terrorism, violence, visibility
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0957155815602158

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