Paper short abstract:

Resonant violence is a term that describes the affective force of genocidal violence, which has the capacity to endure--to resonate--long after the actual physical violence of genocide has ended. This presentation details the effects of this affective violence when left untended.

Paper long abstract:

The effects of genocidal violence remain present in populations for years after the actual physical violence has ended. To depict this phenomenon, I employ the term resonant violence, which describes the affective power of large-scale violence to continue to resonate within the individual or social "body," undergoing various stages of amplification and intensification, until or unless it is transduced through acts that allow this energy to resonate less or differently. By drawing on the sound theory of Viet Erlmann and Jean-Luc Nancy, this theory of resonant violence stresses the possibility that the subjective experience of violence can change, grow, and transform in a group context when it encounters other experiences of violence to resonate with. The presentation also adapts Daughtry's theories of belliphonic sound to conceptualize the damaging role of affect in post-atrocity contexts. At the same time, it theorizes how these dissonant forces can be transduced so as to resonate differently. By drawing examples from several post-atrocity contexts, it will demonstrate how the proliferation of resonant violence facilitates the institutionalization of systemic forms of violence against vulnerable groups. The presentation ends by illustrating some of the ways this affective force has been transformed through collective, embodied practices performed by grassroots, civil society organizations.