Resentment's Virtue

Thomas Brudholm is Research Fellow at the Danish Institute for International Studies.

"Resentment's Virtue represents an important counterpoint to the privileged status accorded to the logic of forgiveness in the transitional justice and reparations literatures. Brudholm illustrates nicely that 'negative emotions' are not only understandable in the aftermath of mass atrocity, but that they possess a moral component that is often ignored by the boosters of reconciliation."-Andrew Woolford, co-author of Informal Reckonings: Conflict Resolution in Mediation, Restorative Justice and Reparations"Resentment’s Virtue offers a much-needed corrective to the current fashionable enthusiasm for reconciliation and forgiveness as appropriate and desirable responses to unspeakable atrocities and the persons who authorized or committed them. It also provides a detailed analysis of Jean AmÉry’s contribution to the alternative argument that continuing outrage and refusal to forgive constitute justifiable moral reactions to such atrocities. It should stimulate renewed discourse on a troublesome subject." -Lawrence L. Langer, author of Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory and, most recently, Using and Abusing the Holocaust"In Resentment's Virtue, Thomas Brudholm rightly takes issue with some of the lazy assumptions concerning both the putative benefits of reconciliation and the assumed negativity of anger directed against those who have committed human rights atrocities.... The results are a thoughtful and interesting… treatment.... [T]he themes in this book will be of interest across the transitional justice disciplines and if Brudholm compels people to take AmÉry seriously, I think he will regard his work as well done." -International Affairs

• Foreward by Jefferie Murphy Preface and Acknowledgements1. Transitional Justice and the Ethics of AngerPart I: Revisiting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa2. Commissioning Anger 3. The Hearings 4. The Therapy of Anger 5. Desmond Tutu on Anger 6. Layers and RemaindersPart II: Jean AmÉry on Resentment and Reconciliation7. Contextualizing "Ressentiments" 8. Opening Moves 9. Facing the Irreversible 10. Restoring Coexistance 11. Guilt and Responsibility 12. Wishful Thinking? 13. A Multifarious Reception 14. Epilogue: Between Resentment and RessentimentAppendix I: Overview of Jean AmÉry's "Ressentiments" Appendix II: Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Notes Works Cited Index