The Representation of Perpetrator Trauma in Forgiveness

Abstract

Raya Morag in her book, Waltzing with Bashir: Perpetrator Trauma and Cinema, shifts the focus away from that of cinema and trauma to that of cinema and perpetrator trauma, through the analysis of Israeli films. Her focus is clearly on the perpetrator, and his/her confession, and his/her resultant trauma. Using Morag's work, as well as that of other renowned trauma scholars, such as Dominick LaCapra, Cathy Caruth, and Saira Mohamed, this article analyses the South African film Forgiveness, and the central protagonist: “Tertius Coetzee.” Coetzee is a former apartheid policeman who tortured and murdered a young anti-apartheid activist, “Daniel Grootboom.” He suffers from perpetrator trauma. This article situates perpetrator trauma within the larger, more established field of memory and trauma studies. Thereafter, the theory of perpetrator trauma is further explicated. This is followed by a hermeneutical, textual analysis of the film, Forgiveness.

Keywords:

• perpetrator trauma
• apartheid
• decolonisation
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• Forgiveness
• memory studies
• trauma studies