THE HELL OF THE PERPETRATORS. IMAGES, STORIES AND CONCEPTS

In the course of the last century, the significance of the victim grew to impregnate both scientific and political discourses as well as therapeutic, symbolic and memory practices. Nevertheless, in recent decades, without the victim having abandoned its importance, the interest in perpetrators has grown, especially in those who committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocides. Among other factors, this turn is due to various reasons: a generalization of victimhood, the disturbing vindication of said condition on behalf of those responsible, the ever-more abundant participation of ordinary perpetrators in massacres or, on occasions, the fragile border that separates victim and aggressor (that “grey zone” about which Primo Levi spoke).

The objective of this conference consists in examining the figure of the perpetrator, both in their monstrous character as well as in their human banality, delving into the analysis of agents of “evil” such as they become manifest in modern societies. For this purpose, the perpetrators will be researched, firstly, through the images that portray them and those they produce; secondly, through the stories that tell their acts (whether they be autonarrations or testimonial stories); and, finally, in the way in which they are conceived of by philosophy, science and history.