Unseen Pain: On the Obscene Truth of Torture

If it was not clear enough already, over the past two years the turmoil in the Middle East made the link between extreme violence and displacement painfully obvious. In this talk, Branislav Jakovljevic is presenting his research on a performance of torture in Yugoslav wars. Arguably, this conflict represents the first in a series of post-Cold War clashes in which we are still embroiled and which seem to escalate endlessly. Chronologically and thematically, this research builds on his work in the book Alienation Effects: Performance and Self-management in Yugoslavia, 1945-1991 (2016).

Branislav Jakovljevic published scholarly articles on a broad variety of subjects, from history of late nineteenth-century theater, to Russian and Soviet avant-garde, to contemporary American experimental performance.  In 2013 he chaired 19th annual Performance Studies international conference "Now Then: Performance and Temporality" at Stanford University. His first book Daniil Kharms: Writing and the Event was published by Northwestern University Press in 2009, and his second book Alienation Effects: Performance and Self-management in Yugoslavia 1945-1991 by University of Michigan Press.