The Survivor in Contemporary Culture and Public Discourse: A Genealogy

Abstract

This article sketches a genealogy examining the production of the concept of “the survivor” in contemporary culture and public discourse across five discursive sites in mainly western (particularly Anglo-American) cultures: the Holocaust, psychotherapy, feminist discourses of childhood and sexual abuse, reality TV, and discourses of health and illness. It argues that the survivor has become a meaningfully visible, cultural notion and a desirable role that individuals are encouraged to assume, rendering the categories of victim and the dead false and illegitimate. The article concludes by arguing for the need in contemporary public and highly mediated space to expand the range of explanatory frameworks through which individuals, especially those experiencing suffering, come to think, judge, and act.

Notes

1. Inevitably, there are other sites, e.g., discourses of terrorism or humanitarianism and development where the survivor figures as a central concept, which are not discussed in this article.

2. Arguably, there is a longer historical scope to the emergence of the survivor than the last 70 years. For example, there are interesting things to be said about its relation to religious narratives, an issue touched on briefly in the conclusions.

3. For discussion of this process, see Loshitzky (2001) and Brug (1996).

4. Gur (2004) gives the example of the Hollywood film “Sophie's Choice” as embodying the glorification of the survivor experiences in a sentimental and heroic fashion, which Gur sees as part of the broader tendency of the “aestheticization” and “kitschification” of the Holocaust. See also Hoffman (2004).

5. Trauma and Recovery (1992) is a decisive text in the production of the survivor, especially in that it establishes the process of recovery from trauma as a redeeming of personal tragedy by making it the source of the “survivor mission.”

6. See http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200605/20060525/slide_20060525_284_201.jhtml. Retrieved July 7, 2008.

7. For an elaborate discussion of the institutionalization of trauma in contemporary culture, see Mowitt (2000) on the concept of “trauma envy” and Ball's (2000) account of “trauma saturation.”

8. For a discussion of this argument, see Naples (2003).

9. Groups, such as the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, represent a deliberate effort to discredit survivors' experiences and authenticity (Champagne, 1996) and deny their entitlement to the “survivor” label.

10. See also Couldry (2002) for a relevant discussion on the media/ordinary world boundary.

11. The discourse of survivor in the cultural realm of health and illness predates the uses of the concept in other fields discussed in this article. However, this genealogy deliberately avoids a chronological order; following Foucault, the emphasis is that there is not a singular source from which the survivor discourse emerged and proliferated. The decision to close the genealogy with a discussion of health and illness was guided by the narrative of the genealogy: an examination of some of the cultural critiques of the survivor discourse which developed in the field of health and illness provided a useful springboard for the broader discussion in the second part of the essay, following the genealogy of the particular sites.

12. See, e.g., The Cancer Fighter Programme http://www.cancercenter.com/patient-services/cancer-fighter.cfm. Retrieved June 10, 2008.

13. The Cancer Warrior's Guide at http://www.cancerwarrior.com/. Retrieved June 10, 2008.

14. http://www.kylie.co.uk/news/archives/00000260.shtml. Retrieved July 7, 2008.

15. http://www.getagripandgo.com/thrivers.html. Retrieved July 7, 2008.

16. The emergence of the survivor is tied in to the increasing centrality of the politics of recognition in Europe and the U.S. from the 1960s onwards. The survivor constitutes a cultural framework within which individuals and groups that have experienced very different kinds of suffering demand that their identity be recognized and validated publicly.

17. Within the discourse of crime and terrorism, the victim seems to represent more of a collective identity of communal suffering, but as an individual identity—constructed as the binary opposition of the survivor—the victim is largely denounced.

18. See Herman (1992).

19. For example, John Tulloch, a survivor of the 7/7 London bombings protested in the media against the appropriation of his image and voice to support the Blair government's legislation on terrorism. “Rachel From North London,” the blog of another survivor of the London bombings voiced similar criticism.