Bodies on fire: Self-immolation as spectacle in contentious politics

Abstract

Contention is often described as driven by mechanisms and processes, many of which involve theatrical, dramaturgical, and visually intense performances (Tilly 2008). Such acts not only include the full gamut of what is traditionally described as “collective action,” but involve single-act and monological performances. Self-immolation is one such contentious performance, perhaps one of the oldest forms of contentious politics, even as old as the act of self-sacrifice (“martyrdom”) itself. The flaming, self-immolating body is a symbolic object that appears to traverse borders of religious affiliation and geographic relation, gaining different symbolic meanings as it does so.

Self-immolations have been performed by people around the world, regardless of religious background, political affiliation, or ideological outlook. Many self-immolators subsequently became national icons of resistance, such as “the burning monk” Thích Quảng Đức in Vietnam and Romas Kalanta in Lithuania. In 2011, a significant wave of self-immolations was observed in Muslim countries, including Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt. Mohammed Bouazizi, who self-immolated in Tunisia, consequently became a symbol of the Jasmine Revolution(s) and antigovernment protests that swept across the Middle East and North Africa in 2010–2012. While it has been recently argued that self-immolation is an act performed by the socially desperate and otherwise voiceless (Żuk and Żuk 2018), the Page 191 →1960s and ’70s saw it take on a novel form in contentious politics as an act performed “not out of despair but out of hope” (Cheyney 1994). By following the sociohistorical evolution of self-immolation as a contentious performance, we can observe the transformation of its meanings over time. We can thus trace the value of such individual sacrifice as a radical form of protest for collective causes, and the value, significance, and potency of the body on fire as a symbolic object in such contentious performances.