Still Burning: Self-Immolation as Photographic Protest

Abstract

This poetic inquiry paper is a reflection on the phenomenon of self-immolation committed as compassionate protest. Whether the self-directed social protest of Vietnamese monk, Thích Quảng Đức, and Tibetan monastics and lay people, expresses selfless, altruistic action, dedicated to the greater good, merits investigation. Individuals seeking social justice in today's troubled times may be interested in cultivating ahimsa, or non-violence, within themselves before attempting to actualize it within their communities. In brief, they should transform themselves before they try to change the world. With self-compassion that broadens to loving kindness and compassion for all, they may attempt to understand those from whom they seek justice before they commit to action. This inquiry concludes with ekphrastic poetry, "interpreting, troubling and addressing" (poets.org) the Tibetan painting, "Wheel of Life," a depiction of the Buddhist concept of the "three poisons," ignorance, desire, and anger, and contemplates their antidotes.

Being Through Doing: The Self-Immolation of an Asylum Seeker in Switzerland

“…As such, it is a way of metaphorically construing and narrating experience; a compelling narrative enjoining others to take action ( 41 ). This is an utterance, a communicative act with the consequent potential to promote agency and civic engagement ( 42 ) which demands a response from the addressee, the Other. It demands and forces social recognition.…”

Symbolic objects in contentious politics

“…The topic of self-immolation has seen its fair share of scholarly attention, especially among sociologists (Robbins 1986;Park 2004;Biggs 2005) and anthropologists (Andriolo 2006;Makley 2015). It has been addressed in discussions as diverse as photographic protest (Yang 2011) and the role of women in peace movements (Cheyney 1994). However, the visual aspects of self-immolation as a distinctly material kind of contentious performance-in particular, its spectacularity, visuality, 4 and physicality-remain largely unaddressed.…”

“…Several scholars have suggested that self-immolation ought to be "read" as a form of suicide in terms of its agency and performance. Yang (2011), in her close visual analysis of Malcolm Browne's photograph of the Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức (see figure 9.1), examined how appropriations of the burning monk's image demonstrate the resonance of "about to die" moments and their potential to promote agency and civic engagement. At the same time, Jaworski (2010) offers a feminist critique of this perspective, suggesting that the suicidal act is relational, and as such never outside of discourse and power relations.…”

“…The image is lifted out of its immediate sociohistorical context: in place of the meditative and mindful public-spirited self-sacrifice of the immolating monk, the album cover connotes the anarchistic rage of youth rebellion, the fire of Molotov cocktails and arson. Nevertheless, the dissemination of the image on the album cover and the associated Facebook page evoked a public memory of Thích Quảng Đức's act and reactivated its potency in a new spatial, temporal, and political context (Yang 2011).…”