The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is a modern social drama that enabled the nation's apartheid past to be constructed as a cultural trauma, and by doing so created a new collective narrative of diversity and inclusion. The TRC relied primarily on testimonies from victims and perpetrators of apartheid violence who came forward to tell their stories in a public forum. Rather than simply serving as data for setting the historical record straight, this book shows that it was not only the content of these testimonies but also how these stories were told and what values were attached to them that became significant. Goodman argues that the performative nature of the TRC process effectively designated the past as profane and simultaneously imagined a sacred future community based on democratic idealism and universal solidarity.

About the Author
Tanya Goodman is an independent researcher who has taught at Yale Law School, worked with various human rights oriented nongovernmental organizations in South Africa, and developed a multimedia project related to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission under a grant from the U.S. Institute for Peace. Her research to date has focused on issues related to truth commissions and transitional justice on a local and global scale. Ronald Eyerman is Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University. His recent books include Music and Social Movements (1998) and Cultural Trauma Slavery and the Formation of African American Identity (2002), both from Cambridge University Press. Jeffrey C. Alexander is the Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology at Yale University, where he is Codirector of the Center for Cultural Sociology. Among his many influential books is The Civic Sphere (2006).

Reviews

Tanya Goodman brings to this study of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission an impressive set of analytic skills as well as a deep sensitivity to the cultural climate of South Africa. The hearings of the Commission were political theater, ritual performance, judicial procedure, moral pageant, and public ceremony all at once. They played a vital role in the beginnings of what may well become a true national community, and Goodman has caught their character and their spirit wonderfully.
-Kai Erikson, Yale University

Book Information
ISBN 9781594512858
Author Tanya Goodman
Format Hardback
Page Count 194
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Inc
Weight(grams) 385g