The Sins of the Nation and the Ritual of Apologies

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-0-521-51669-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 294 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 608 g

In the last years of the twentieth century, political leaders the world over began to apologize for wrongs in their nations' pasts. Many dismissed these apologies as 'mere words', cynical attempts to avoid more costly forms of reparation; others rejected them as inappropriate encroachments into politics or forms of action that belonged in personal relationships or religion. To understand apology's extraordinary political emergence, we have to suspend our automatic interpretations of what it means for nations to apologize and interrogate their meaning afresh. Taking the reader on a journey through apology's religious history and contemporary apologetic dramas, this book argues that the apologetic phenomenon marks a new stage in our recognition of the importance of collective responsibility, the place of ritual in addressing national wrongs, and the contribution that practices that once belonged in the religious sphere might make to contemporary politics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Celermajer, Danielle

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Geschichtspolitik, Erinnerungskultur
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Gewalt
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Geschichtsphilosophie, Philosophie der Geschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Museumskunde, Materielle Kultur, Erinnerungskultur
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: the apology and political theory; 1. The apology phenomenon; 2. Apologies as speech acts; 3. Judaism's apology: reconstituting the community; 4. The privatization of repentance in Christianity; 5. Australia's divided history; 6. Saying sorry in Australia; 7. Apology's responsibility; 8. Apology as political action; Bibliography.

Über Autor(innen)

Celermajer, Danielle
Danielle Celermajer is currently a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. She was formerly Director of Indigenous Policy at the Australian Human Rights Commission. She was the recipient of grants from the Fulbright Foundation, a Mellon Fellowship, and the Rockefeller Foundation. She has written extensively on transitional justice, human rights, religion, and the political thought of Hannah Arendt, and she recently co-edited a forthcoming book on Hannah Arendt and political judgment.