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CAMP X-RAY AND THE TASK OF CRITIQUE:
TORTURABILITY AND THE POLITICS OF ETHICAL RECOGNITION IN GUANTANAMO

This essay critiques the anti-torture position of thriller movie Camp X-Ray (2014).

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From the conclusion:

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"Without a comprehensively disruptive narrative that articulates the full philosophical and political reasons that torture cannot be tolerated, talk of the humanity of the other remains a luxury, symbolically pleasurable but politically worthless. Compassion and empathy are not, after all, solidarity; exposure is not redress. Cultural representations, such as Camp X-Ray, that engage in anti-torture critique risk political irrelevance and philosophical banality if they fail to engage in this wider project and if they continue to reproduce the racist logics that underpin the militarization of popular culture."

PUBLICATION DETAILS:​

 

Journal of Film and Video

73.3 (2021), pp. 23-33.

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url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jfilmvideo.73.3.0023

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Print ISSN: 07424671

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Online ISSN: 19346018

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