ENGL 1F97 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Retributive Justice, War Crime
42 views2 pages
Week 4
The monument
Dealing with the problems of “post-conict” society
“Post conict” societies not beyond conict, not completely in a
new phase, although there may have been a truce or cease-"re
or a military surrender or the inauguration of a new government
so the use of the term “post conict”
Retributive justice
Idea of retributive justice (an eye for an eye) staged in opening scene
(Stetko, as war criminal, is about to be executed for war crimes)
Suspending “an eye for an eye” logic
The death sentence is premised on the idea that justice is achieved
when one wrong is “balanced” or “o*set” by another
How to live together after conict
Rest of the play “suspends” this idea
Examines what it would be like for the most extreme of enemies to
have to "nd a way of living together after war
Examines what would be necessary for living together to be achieved
Retributive Justice
What kind of future is possible after retributive justice?
What kind of basis for compassion and community and reciprocity
exists?
Responsibility, Choice, Agency
Also raises questions about responsibility and choice and agency
Title
What is the signi"cance of monuments?
What do they invite us to remember?
Where do they invite us to remember?
How does Wagner’s monument function?
In what ways is it di*erent, in what ways is it similar, to monuments
with which you are familiar?
First Epigraph
Speaks of the pervasiveness of conict and opposition
Speaks of the way that notions of “us” and “them” can so easily be
recon"gured.
In the "rst sentence “I” is the point of reference and the “brother” is
seen as the enemy