Subjectivity and Violence: A Dynamic Framework J I A C H E NG L I
Are rape, murder, or domestic abuse violence? Most would agree they are. Physical force and coercion are directly imposed upon the victims against their will, which often results in severe somatic, or physical, and mental damages. Are sexism or racism violence? Many would say, yes. A certain population becomes the target of attack or discrimination, their rights to equality are denied or alienated by others, and they enjoy fewer opportunities and face more barriers in pursuit of their life goals. Is abortion violence? That answer is probably contested. Some argue that women are entitled to full control of their own bodies, so abortion is not violence; others believe that violence exists in the action to prevent a human life from coming to earth. The answers are different because violence is rarely a concept that exists independently of human subjectivity. Rather, it is deeply built into our value systems and social consensus. The reason we generally recognize rape or racism as violence is because the notion that everyone has rights to life, liberty, and equal opportunities has developed to represent our fundamental values, whereas there is no such consensus when it comes to issues like abortion. To conceptualize violence, our formula has to be empirical rather than metaphysical, dynamic rather than static, and interactional rather than separational. This paper proposes a dynamic model of violence in light of the evolution of human subjectivity. It adopts Johan Galtung’s framework of structural violence and incorporates the concepts of slow violence and violence of positivity developed by Rob Nixon and by Byung-Hul Han. Inserting subjectivity into the formulation of violence not only helps us detect violence in its often overlooked and imperceptible forms, but also sheds light on the evolution of violence over time and suggests free, inclusive discourses are essential to approach and address violence. Galtung defines violence “as the cause of the difference between the potential and the actual” (168). Violence exists when humans are “being influenced so
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