Violence
|
2004
Authors: Leigh A. Payne

Confessional Performances: Perpetrators’ Testimonies to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

This chapter analyzes amnesty‑hearing testimony as a form of staged performance. Focusing on perpetrators’ appearances before the TRC, Payne shows how their narratives are shaped by the institutional rules of the amnesty process, by legal and political incentives, and by the expectations of multiple audiences (commissioners, victims, political organizations, and the wider public). Payne details recurring narrative strategies—such as framing violence as obedience to orders, denying pleasure or prejudice, exaggerating political motives, or selectively expressing remorse—and argues that these performances work to manage culpability, rehabilitate perpetrators’ public identities, and influence broader interpretations of apartheid‑era violence. The chapter thus proposes an interpretive, performance‑oriented methodology for reading perpetrator testimony that illuminates how truth, responsibility, and reconciliation are negotiated in and through these highly scripted public acts.

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