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Torture and the Penal Colony

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2007

SUSAN MARKS
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Abstract

Kafka's short story In the Penal Colony depicts the visit of a European traveller to a cruel penal colony. The author uses the story to explore current issues concerning torture. Her particular focus is on the interrelation between torture and empire, and on the limits of humanitarian reform. Kafka is instructive in puncturing the pretensions of humanitarianism, and in pointing up the inescapable uncertainties, absurdities, and complicities associated with it.

Keywords

counterterrorismextraordinary renditionKafkatorture
Type
ARTICLES
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 535 - 544
Copyright
© 2007 Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law

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