The figure of the victim

genealogy and argumentative uses

Abstract

Nowadays, the figure of victim rules several public interventions of individuals and collectives that not only belong to minorities and subaltern groups, but also it rules institutional, collective and individual discourses, that have a consolidated place in the statu quo. A quick look over this issue discards using this figure as a strategy of agency due to a victim is characterized by its passivity. However, the case is that its use in the public space able to certain prerogatives in the agent that invokes it and, at same time, it puts him or her in a position that is not necessarily characterized by its passivity but, on the contrary, this figure endows to the agent with very specific possibilities of action. Specifically, in this work we propose put into question this point of view considering a few examples of negationism about the character of the victim in such. The negation of the victim through the means of disputing its position by its aggressor attracts our attention a kind of verbal intervention that uses the figure of the victim.

In this work we propose, on the one hand, to historicize this figure making its genealogy based on Rene Girard’s studies about sacrifice and, on the other hand, to analyze rhetorically a few exemplary cases that visibilizes the type of agency that characterize its use. To do that we take examples from history and social sciences literature and the feminism movement.