Madelaine Hron  (Wilfred Laurier University)
Under Torture: Postcolonial, Human Rights & Globalization Theory

From ancient to contemporary times, torture has been defined as "the inquiry after truth by means of torment." (Azo, 13thCE and Langbein, 20th CE) Of late, the "truth" of postcolonial theory, has been the subject of torturous interrogation. Globalization theorists such as Hardt & Negri have argued the postcolonialism has reached a "dead end"; San Juan states it is time to move "beyond postcolonialism." Postcolonial theory stands accused. Of various crimes, including (and not limited to): 1) perpetuating binary structures (be it the colonizer/colonized, victim/ oppressor or colonialism/post-colonialism); 2) perpetrating hegemonic imperialism (eg. most postcolonial theory and literature continues to be in English and French, the former imperial powers); or more pertinently, 3) denying globalization, the intensification of economic, and technological flows in the "non-spaces of oppression" of the world. Indeed - how might postcolonial theory critically address human rights issues in our post 9/11 world, such as the torture in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay or undisclosed terrorist detention camps around the globe?

In this paper, referring to the case of torture, I examine some of the assumptions, strengths and weaknesses of post-colonial, human rights and globalization theory. My interrogation draws on contemporary instances of torture (cited above), on torture sequences from Hollywood films (from The Marathon Man to Die Another Day), as well as on literary texts of torture, specifically, South African J.M. Coetzee's English classic Waiting For The Barbarians, Haitian Gérard Étienne's lesser-known Le nègre crucifié and Iranian Reza Baraheni's obscure The Infernal Days of Aghaye Ayyaz. In defense of postcolonial theory, I refer to Fanon's canonical postcolonial texts (such as Black Skins, White Masks), which written largely as a response to his psychotherapy with Algerian victims of torture, as well as their French torturers. Fanon's established concepts, of "internalized oppression" or "collective auto-destruction" stem from observations of traumatic sequelae of torture. The scandal surrounding the recent publication of the memoirs of former French legionary General Paul Aussaresses, in which he admits to having tortured Algerian prisoners, suggests that the effects of the torture of the French Maghreb are far from being resolved.

More saliently, in my close reading analyses, I argue that some of the underlying, well-developed paradigms of post-colonial theory - such as the victim/perpetrator dichotomy, the untranslatability of language or the multifaceted modes post-colonial resistance - allow for an authoritative reception of these texts. However, drawing on human rights and globalization theory, I propose a significantly more nuanced and effective reading of these tortured works. I explore, for example, the evolution of torture, post-human technology or the post-capital economy of pain, as well as the dynamics of intervention and witnessing within the "non-space of oppression". To conclude, I allude to further human-rights violations in which this more interdisciplinary and ethical 'postcolonial' model should be applied - citing, for example, the undertheorized non-place of child-soldiers (clamored by such authors as Kourouma, Iweala or Habila) or the many recent, yet oft-dismissed, testimonials by survivors of the Rwandan genocide.