Visual Theaters of Suffering: Constituting the Western Spectator in the Age of Humanitarian World Politics

Visual images picturing suffering of others are in many ways forceful; they move their spectators emotionally and politically. Images of wars, crisis and suffering communicate humanity, the peril it is in, as well as the need to protect it and to alleviate suffering. Emotive images of bodily suffering affect the understanding of not only the immediate crisis they depict but of the surrounding world, the position of the spectators of the images, as well as the position of the spectated (suffering) others.

This is a study into the position, significance, framings and utilization of images of atrocity, war and human suffering within the evolvement of the ideas of a shared human community and humanitarian discourse. The visual theaters of suffering are approached within a historical perspective from the times of the Enlightenment onwards, focusing particularly on the era of Western lead humanitarian world politics of the recent decades. The thesis asks, how images of suffering presented within a humanitarian frame have historically been communicating apprehensions of a shared humanity whilst reflecting the political preconditions of their era. And how images of distress and crisis in the more contemporary international political and media contexts are framed and used within the Western sphere, and how they are communicating the prevalent humanitarian ethos of their time. The dissertation focuses on visual practices that constitute namely the Western spectatorship and Western spectator of suffering, and thus the practices that through visual representations of suffering, war and conflict constitute, produce and reproduce conceptions of international politics, the West and the Rest and hierarchies of humanity.

Humanitarianism, especially in the more contemporary political settings is approached as an influential (unconscious) ideology. Emotive images of suffering are perceived as emotionally driven theatrical tragedy arrangements through which the ideological apparatus of humanitarianism addresses and invites its audiences to see the spectacles of global suffering in certain contextual, politically and ideologically constructed and governed ways.

Firstly the history of visual humanitarian communication from the mid- eighteenth century until 2000s is mapped out. Through the mapping out of the imagery, the positions and framing of images of human suffering within the evolvement of the humanity and humanitarianism discourses and changing notions of life seen as worthy of protection and rights are analyzed. Secondly, through four divergent, contemporary and empirically orientated cases, it is analyzed how various images of crisis, war and suffering/non- suffering are arranged and utilized in the contemporary settings of Western humanitarian world politics.

In the contemporary setting, images of conflict, war, natural catastrophes and refugeeness are discussed, and the differences of the representation of Western suffering vis-à-vis non-Western suffering are analyzed as a theater of proof of the conditional nature of humanity. Topical Western visual war branding efforts strategic communication of the NATO Afghanistan operation are analyzed from the point of view of the legitimizing narratives of contemporary Western war. Also the visual narratives of the Western enemies Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in the context of Western humanitarian international politics are scrutinized. And finally, the positions of social media images of contemporary war within international politics namely the images of the Syrian 2013 Ghouta chemical assault are analyzed.

The thesis shows how visual humanitarian communication, the representational practices and arrangements of images of pain and crisis, have during history reflected, as well as constructed, the predominant thinking on humanity, the perils it faces and the available means to protect life from these perils. It is concluded that in addition to mediating distant atrocities and informing the spectators of the need of help, images of war and suffering are contemporarily often used in the branding of military operations and legitimation of interventionist actions, as well as utilized as strategic enablers in foreign political settings in times of crisis. Moreover, it is argued that the humanitarian imagery of today has become a central arena of communicating the world order, and further of indicating the status of the sufferers within the global hierarchy of humanity, and thus manifesting the globally conditional value of (human) life and the limited universality of humanity.

The study includes 24 collage illustrations into which some of the key visual images discussed in the study are compiled.